


Once Upon A Klance...

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Demon!Keith, Eventual Smut, M/M, Nipple Piercings, Nipple Play, Nudity, Oral Sex, Rimming, Shameless Smut, Swords and Sorcery, Threesome - M/M/M, klance, mild violence, multi-chapter fic, shklance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-12 16:21:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 46,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7941139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A swords-and-sorcery high fantasy AU! The kingdom of Altea is devastated to find their powerful and handsome Court Wizard Shiro has been kidnapped by the Galra Empire. Lance, a young and inexperienced apprentice enchanter, takes it upon himself to find a way to rescue him from their clutches. His solution: summon one of Shiro's many contacts in the demon world, head out on a quest to the Galra Capitol and use the demon's powers to break into Emperor Zarkon's dungeons. One problem: Lance is not the greatest at demon summoning and instead of conjuring up a fierce monster, he gets a strange, pointy-eared human-like creature named Keith instead. Will Lance and Keith be able to work together as enchanter and demon as they attempt to rescue the master they both miss? And will Lance be able to handle Keith's teasing and constant stripping? My second multi-chapter fic for the Voltron fandom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. There Are Some Who Call Him...Lance

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone in the Voltron fandom and thanks for all your kind support on my previous Klance fics (especially Tutoring Sessions With Keith, there will be a sequel to that eventually but this is not it, sadly), you've all been great readers! I wanted to do something a little different here, flex my creative writing muscles a bit, so I decided to set the Voltron cast in a fantasy story setting for a change, seeing as the show already has so many fantastic elements to it. I'm anticipating 6 chapters at most for this story (though you never know, it could go longer) and am hoping to use more of the cast than I normally do. If fantasy isn't your thing but you want to read smut, well, that'll exist later on near the end (and if you don't like that, you can skip when it comes up, I'll presage it in the notes.) Also, any modern-day speech is an intentional anachronism, I'm not uptight about that sort of thing. OK, thanks for reading-kudos, comments and kind words are appreciated! Enjoy!

A hundred horns blew out thunderous fanfare as the gilded gates to the Altean Throne Room opened for the day, signalling that the Princess Allura and her regent, High Minister Coran, would be holding court. Normally, Lance of the House McClain, apprentice enchanter and general nuisance to anyone not of the Altean High Order of Mages (and to most of them, too) wouldn't even bother with attending what would likely be a long and tedious affair, talk of law and order and intrigue that was far beyond his station to worry about. Today, however, was not a day for him to skulk off in his corner of the castle or find attractive ladies of the court (and occasionally lordlings) and attempt to flirt with them.

Lance's master was in danger and of the High Order of Mages, only he had a plan daring enough to actually get him home to safety.

As the horns continued to blare, Lance checked himself out in the silvered looking glass in his small, round chamber at the back of the Grand Lion Keep, where most enchanters and apprentice enchanters of the realms made their home in the crumbling brick tower known as the Magister's Drum. Ordinarily, Lance would just wear the same white and blue apprentice robe he wore everyday as he practiced his mastery of the elements, studied the relationship between mysterious energies and the binding power of words, and learned of the different beasts and beings that possessed deep connections to magic. As Lance was attempting to look impressive for the royal court-who were the only ones that could approve of his idea to return his master to safety-he had donned the kind of clothes he would wear when out and about in town, wooing fair tavern maids and handsome merchant's sons. Tight gray breeches and polished black boots, a simple white linen shirt and bottle-green waistcoat beneath a mantled dark blue velvet overcoat composed his wardrobe. Silver buttons, silver rings, a silver ear piercing and a silver medallion etched in runes of protection were the accents of wealth he had added to his look so no one thought him one of the poor town-boys who had been apprenticed as a mage out of necessity rather than an actual dedication to the craft. A toothy grin split across Lance's light brown face as he looked himself over in the mirror, incredibly pleased with the result. He was handsome as hell and quite presentable, the royals would have to listen to his plan, there was no way they would discount his ideas.

"Well don't you look all fine and dandy," Lance's fellow apprentice, Pidge Gunderson, said grumpily as they sat on the wooden bench at the end of Lance's bed. A thin, tiny person with a mop of chestnut brown hair and amber brown eyes hidden behind giant spectacles, Pidge was a bright, brilliant young mage of indeterminate sex and gender-word was Pidge once went by the title Lady Katherine of the House Holt though Lance was unsure if this was true and did not wish to push Pidge on the issue-who wore baggy robes of green and gray, being of a different sect of mages than Lance. A floating metallic pyramid-shaped automaton named Rover served as Pidge's familiar, bumping about the spartan chamber carelessly as it tried to observe everything around it, reminding Lance of the pressing need to gain a familiar of his own. He'd much rather focus on the matter at hand, however, as he could not advance any further in his studies without his master.

"Why, thank you, Pidge, that was my intention," Lance said with a flourish of fingers positioned like wands ready to fire, his charming smile having no effect on Pidge whatsoever. That was okay, though, Lance only had to win over the Princess. Once he'd gained her trust, accomplished his mission, and showed the Altean Court his abilities, he'd be fast-tracked to a full Mage of the High Order for sure. "Think I'll make the Princess fall head over heels in love with me?"

"I think you'll make her fall head over heels all right," Pidge said with a snicker. "Whether love's part of it, well, I kind of doubt that. More like she'll fall over from laughing." Lance scowled and Pidge blew a raspberry at him. "I wouldn't try too hard with the smooth, suave ladie's man thing, either," Pidge continued, "those Truthseeker mice of hers can read minds, you know. Best to just stick with explaining your idea, plain and simple truth." Pidge sighed as they flipped through the vellum pages of a giant grimoire they'd pulled down from the sprawling spiral of bookshelves in the Court Wizard's library. "Sure you'll be able to pull this off, Lance? Even the Master Mages don't try what you're attempting all that often and they've usually served twice as long as you've been alive at least."

Lance frowned and looked down at the silver medallion hanging against his chest. He didn't have Pidge's way with the delicate intricacies and nuances of magic, true, but he had more power than any of the other apprentices and his own master had said he'd surpass them all some day, even him. "Of course I'll pull it off, Pidge. I don't have any other choice. Everyone else has either suggested doing nothing or using plans that are bound to fail. I'm the only one with the power and the vision to bring my master back from the Galra, if those bat-banner bastards haven't already killed him."

Pidge snorted. "Your master is Shiro Silverfist, Lance, the only mage to have also served as a knight in the Royal Guard. He's seen a dozen different battle campaigns alone! His arm is made of pure silver and steel he fashioned from magic in battle mere moments after he lost his real one. You think a guy who can ignore that kind of pain and work such power and craft is going to succumb to brainless butchers like the Galra? Pfft! You really don't know your master well at all, do you, Lance?"

Lance muttered several curses in different languages under his breath and ignored Pidge's goofy grin. "I know, Pidge, I know, I've heard all the tales of what Shiro's been up to over the years, no need to remind me." Which was part of the reason why Lance had to attempt this rescue himself-he had to prove to Shiro that, family name and raw power aside, Lance was truly worthy to be apprentice to the court wizard himself. "I still worry about him, though. He's been in their dungeons a month-as has your brother, if the tales are correct..."

Pidge's eyes grew downcast, the spectacles nearly sliding off of the pale, pointed face, so young and almost elfin-featured. "Yeah, I know. I worry about Matthew as well. If Shiro's by his side still, though, they should both be all right. I still can't believe they got captured so easily on the way back from that recon mission-the Kerberos Pass is barely guarded! And Shiro could take on an entire regiment of Galran knights single-handed. The fact that they were captured just doesn't make sense."

Lance stroked his chin, unsure if he should reveal what he'd heard being whispered at the last meeting of the Royal Court. Given that Pidge was going to help him out with the finer points of his plan, well, he had no other choice. He owed Pidge the truth. "Look, Pidge, from what I hear, the Galran Emperor, Zarkon, has finally allied himself with that ancient Witch-Queen of the Winter-Wastes, Haggar. I don't believe it myself, but its in the official intelligence reports and its the only explanation that makes sense. Shiro's always said he wasn't sure he could ever face her skill with summoning the Darkling Force, not alone. I only hope she hasn't decided to use either Shiro or your brother for any of her...experiments..."

Pidge sucked in a deep breath as they held back tears, then let out a string of obscenities that could have flattened several small towns. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Pidge concluded as they kicked one of Lance's heavy wooden chests full of spellbooks and scraps of silken clothing, Rover's metallic body floating overhead, making beeping noises that Lance sensed were full of concern. Lance placed a calming hand on Pidge's shoulders and, eventually, the smaller apprentice began to mellow.

"You know what, Lance? Screw waiting! Those horns are blowing loud and clear, let's go and get Allura to approve your plan, pronto!"

"I knew I could count on you, Pidge," Lance said, grinning for real this time as he grabbed a medallion of white gold and handed it over to Pidge-all mages needed official identifiers when heading into court, after all, and Pidge constantly left theirs lying about. "All right, let's go and see the Princess."

The halls of the Magister's Drum passed them by as they quickly made their way to the Altean Throne Room, the walls cracked old reddish-brown brick spattered with patches of white nitre and flecks of gray mortar, the dim lighting provided by slivers of pale blue spirit-glass held aloft by tiny white stone lion sconces. The two apprentices soon made it into the castle proper, still overawed after all this time by the vaulted ceilings lined with glowing green crystal, the fluted white marble pillars and the carved colonnades of lacy indigo glass that flowed like water along spiraling staircases and curving bridges. The castle was overflowing with nobles and peasants from far and wide across the kingdom, all of them seeking audience with the Princes and the Regent, all of them overawed by the beauty of the castle's architecture, though most tried to hide it. Floating panels of glowing glass, wreathed in blue fire and powered by magic, relayed information from the different markets and cities and fronts of battle so all in attendance could still keep up with what went on elsewhere in Altea and the rest of the world-Arusa, the Confederation of the Balmera, even in Galra itself. Lance ignored it all; right now, he only cared about freeing Shiro and the glory and honor he would attain for doing so.

"Halt, you two!" said a young guard by the side-entrance the two mages were attempting to enter, his skin the deep brown of a man from the tropical Kingdom of the Hundred Isles, his build big and beefy and yet perfect for the suit of gilded armor he wore beneath a blue and yellow tabard. To others, it might look like Lance and Pidge were being pulled aside for a random security check but in reality,it was because the two mages and the guard were good friends.

"Hey there, Hunk, my man!" Lance grinned, elbowing his big friend in the belly and wincing as he remembered too late it was covered in gilded steel. "Ow, oof...so, how things going down here in court? Lots of lovely ladies and lordlings to look at to relieve the boredom of guard duty, am I right?"

"Lance," Pidge sighed, pinching the bridge of their nose, "not everyone's the horndog that you are, you know. Some of us aren't all that interested in sex or romance, thank you, no need to bring it up every time you talk to someone." Pidge looked up at Hunk's frowning face and gave a wicked grin. "Mind you, I know for a fact that Hunk here is-as long as it's a certain noble lady from the Balmera city-states..."

Hunk's face grew rigid and he began to babble. "I have no idea what you're talking about Pidge, no idea! I don't fancy anyone in particular in the court, from Altea or Balmera or anywhere else, certainly not the Lady Shay, you're seeing things that aren't there..."

Pidge chuckled. "Did I actually mention the Lady Shay by name at all?"

Hunk gulped and turned the other way. "Anyway, let's talk about something else, something not involving me...so, what are you two doing here? And why're you looking all fancy-like, Lance? Your family isn't here at court for anything official, are they?"

Lance shuddered, trying not to think of his noble house or his ancient autocratic matriarch of a grandmother. "No, nothing involving them. This is, uh, a personal affair. You heard about what happened to my master, right?"

Hunk's eyes widened. "Only rumors. It's true that the Galra have Shiro Silverfist, then, I take it?"

"And Pidge's brother, Matthew," Lance sighed, ruffling Pidge's hair as his friend glowered and growled at non-existent Galra in the hallway. "But not for long, though. I have," Lance paused dramatically, "a plan!"

"We're doomed, then," Hunk sighed, eyes downcast, lips forming a pitiful pout. "This is going to end as badly as that time you hijacked one of the royal dragons so we could see the city from above..."

"Hey, is it my fault that dragon had a bad case of indigestion? There was no warning outside the dragon hold saying "No flying until half-an-hour after eating!" You should be glad my mad flying skills saved the three of us from being bits of charred and flaming human barbecue!"

"We wouldn't have had that problem in the first place if you hadn't dragged us up there," Hunk grumbled, looking down at Pidge for support. Pidge merely shrugged.

"What? I thought riding that dragon was pretty damn cool."

"You two are hopeless," Hunk sighed. "So. I take it you want to present a petition to the Princess and get past all the official traffic, do you?"

"Yep," Lance said simply, his beaming grin and waggling eyebrows working on overdrive. "And you're a good friend who doesn't need a bribe to let us in, too. Just in case you did need a little persuading, though, I brought this..." Lance reached into the deep pockets of his dark blue overcoat and pulled out something he'd smuggled out of the castle kitchens earlier that day:a delicious meat pie wrapped in checkered red-and-white cloth, the crust crispy and golden-brown, the filling a thick, meaty brown gravy rich with savory seasoning, Hunk's favorite snack food. The big guy licked his lips, looked either way to make sure no other guards were looking, then waved the two mages in while he grabbed the still-warm meat pie and wolfed it down in a few bites.

"Don't think you can get away with everything just by giving me food," Hunk mumbled in between big bites of pie, flecks of crust sticking to his lips. "Just because I'm big and love food doesn't mean you can control me like that. Food's not the boss of me. I'm just doing a favor for a friend."

"So am I, Hunk, so am I," Lance said with a chuckle, striding on into the throne room's viewing gallery as if he owned the place, Pidge darting in like one of the princess' famous psychic mice. They waved goodbye to their friend the castle guard and headed for the edge of the balcony overlooking the white-and-blue tiled floor and massive green marble pillars of the Altean Throne Room. Lance had only ever been in here a few times before and still felt slightly overwhelmed by just how spacious and ancient it was. Ten thousand years of history had happened here, much of it bloody, much of it magnificent, most of it beyond Lance's memory. Just because he was an ace with magic didn't mean he had a head for history and for dry, tedious facts. He left that stuff to Pidge, who could tell you the name of each of the million circuits that wired and wormed their ways through the steely bodies of the kingdom's magic robot servants if you asked.

Down below, in the center of the throne room, upon a seat of gold and veined white marble, sat the princess herself, Allura of Altea, First of Her Name, her skin a beautiful brown, her hair a lustrous flow of snow-white, her eyes a shimmering opalescent blue-any who doubted her royal descent would only have to look at the peculiar trait of the High Altean lineage, ears that were as pointy as the elves of the fairy tales of old, to know she was of the blood of Alfor. At the foot of her throne, careful not to trip over the spills and falls of the Princess' silvery-white gown as it draped upon the floor, paced back and forth the High Minister Coran, his stern gaze made less so by the laugh-lines around his eyes and the ridiculous orange-red moustache he stroked whenever he was lost in thought. The High Minister's pacing continued back and forth for a few minutes before he conferred with Allura, gave his verdict to the current petitioner, and waved the grateful citizens away.

"Next petitioner!" cried out one of the court's steel-skinned robot servants, their single eye the same flickering green dot in a sliver of black glass that Rover bore. Before any of the people in the crowd down below could move forward, Lance burst down the stairs and began waving his arms like a madman, shouting the princess' name like a mantra. "Allura! ALLURA! Ooh, ooh, pick me!"

Coran frowned as he stroked his moustache and the princess rubbed at her temples. "You may approach the throne, Citizen. No, not just a citizen-judging by that medallion, you are an Enchanter of some sort. Pray, tell us your name, O Enchanter."

"There are some who call me...Lance," he responded as he rubbed at his chin and gave the princess his best smile, hoping the light would hit his teeth and let the pearly whites show off their finest sparkle. As the princess and the High Minister shared looks of confusion, Pidge made their way down the stairs and stopped by Lance, scowling at the older apprentice.

"Lance," the princess repeated, her voice rich and soft. "Lance the Enchanter. As in Lance of the House McClain? Heir to the Blue Fortress and apprentice to our fallen Court Wizard, Shiro Silverfist?"

Lance stepped forward, his smile turned to a glare, as he looked defiantly at the crowd of elder mages and nobles murmuring unhappily in the ring surrounding the central dais. "Yes, your highness. Last I heard, though, my master hasn't fallen, he's merely been captured, alongside Lord Matthew of the House Holt. And I've come here with a plan to rescue them both."

Much tittering and laughter emerged from the crowd of mages, all of them so sure of themselves that Lance wanted to punch each and every one of them in the face, no matter the consequences. Allura raised a hand to them to gain their silence and leaned down from her throne, her stately, regal face so beautiful it made Lance want to leap up and beg for a kiss right then and there. "My advisers in the High Order of Mages assure me there is nothing we can do to retrieve Shiro from the Galra short of offering parley and giving in to several of their demands, which I cannot do, will not do. I will not give into those who slew my father, the king, no matter how important Shiro is to the kingdom. We have others who can serve in his place until he either frees himself or is lost to us for good." Allura tapped a finger at her lush lips. "Unless you, his own apprentice, have another idea we should consider? I know these mages would tell me to leave well enough alone but considering how many of them are desperate to move up more in the sphere of politics than in the realms of magic, I think I should take their advice with a grain of salt."

Much angry muttering followed the Princess' blandishment but Lance paid no attention to it. The Princess was going to give his idea an actual moment to shine! Lance rubbed his hands together, turned on the charming smile again (the sound of Pidge's hand smacking into their face came from beside him), and gave Allura a deep bow, his velvet overcoat swishing loudly from the flourishing gesture.

"Princess Allura, you beautiful, noble, wonderful creature," Lance began, ignoring the fake-retching noises Pidge made, "I know the ideal way of rescuing Shiro from the Galra clutches and with minimal danger to our proud Altean forces. Anyone who knows anything about Galra-and I am one of those people in the know, thank you-knows that the troops that patrol their Garrison's walls aren't the real danger any infiltrators have to deal with. It's the Quintessence Barriers that Zarkon and his Darkling Mages have installed that are the real trouble. Few in the kingdom can muster the power to use quintessence properly, even with the aid of Balmeran crystals. Fortunately for everyone here, not only does Shiro have the requisite strength to handle it, so do I."

The angry muttering grew louder until Allura waved a hand and frowned at Lance. "Are you saying you'd simply walk in there, break down the barriers and bring Shiro out? That's your great plan?"

"Au contraire, Princess," Lance chuckled, knowing that some herald or chamberlain in the throne room had likely fainted by now given how informal Lance was being. Well, palace protocol could go fuck itself for all he cared. "That is only part of the plan. I may have the power to work in quintessence but I don't have the knowledge or the deft skill required to do so properly, seamlessly. So I suggest I put my powers to use elsewhere and with a little help from my good friend Pidge here, summon one of Master Shiro's demon contacts from the Shadow Domains to help us out. Only a demon can truly handle the quintessence, only a demon can help save Shiro now. And only I can access Shiro's contact texts to summon one as they're keyed to him and his apprentice only. I can bring him back to you, to all of us, if only you will bestow your grace and blessing and allow me to do so."

The angry mutterings turned to outright outrage, barely contained by Coran's barking bellow for silence a moment later. Allura's pretty sapphire eyes were rigid as frosted steel as she studied Lance and his audacious idea. Few could contact the demons of the Shadow Domains, fewer could control them still, and everyone knew one of those demons, once brought to the mortal plane, could bring chaos beyond belief to everyone if left unattended. Even Shiro seldom sought their advice and their power, though he did so with the full powers and prestige as befit his office as Court Wizard. A mere Enchanter, and an apprentice at that, had never before been granted permission to summon a demon and link with them. Allura remained silent as she considered the plan, her intent stare making droplets of sweat fall down Lance's forehead, his dark brown bangs falling into his eyes and tickling at his long lashes. He felt his teeth chatter as a smidgen of doubt crept into his otherwise usually over-confident thoughts. He could wind up dead from this but that didn't bother him, not really. If he succeeded in the summoning but nothing else, what then would Allura do? His days as a mage of the realm could be over, his house ruined. The glaring face of his grandmother reared up in his memory and Lance did his best to suppress a shudder.

At last, Allura rose from her throne and spoke. "Know this, High Order of Mages. Know this, Court of Altea. I, Allura of the Line of Alfor, queen of this nation in but a year, do hereby declare that Lance of the House McClain may proceed in his plan to free for us our Court Wizard, Shiro Silverfist, from the clutches of our enemies, the Galra! Under the Seal of the Lion do I declare this this young man may risk summoning a being of power from beyond the veil of darkness! Should he succeed in our mission, our Court Wizard will return to us and we shall have a new fully raised Enchanter in our midst! Should he fail in his mission, I will be merciful to House McClain but their son, should he live, will face grave punishment for messing in magic beyond the laws of nature and morality." Allura turned her gaze back to him, a sliver of hope hiding behind the fierce composure; she wanted this to succeed as much as he did, perhaps more. "Is that understood, Lance the Enchanter?"

Lance gulped and stepped back a bit, nearly bumping into Pidge. "Y-yes, your highness. May I ask for amnesty for my friend Pidge here? They are only helping, they had no part in thinking up the plan, which even I admit is a little half-cracked..."

A small smile flickered on the Princess' face for a fraction of a second. "Amnesty is granted for Pidge Gunderson. Go, now, and bring to us a demon that can rescue Shiro."

Pidge whispered "thank you," as they walked alongside Lance down the main corridor and out of the throne room. Lance's legs were wooden, his gait stiff and awkward. He had never expected that to work, had never actually expected he could convince the Princess to authorize his plan. And now, well, tonight he would see whether he really could do what he said he could.

Hours later, he and Pidge sat in the highest chamber of the Magister' Drum, in the Turret of the Court Wizard, where Shiro had kept his lodgings and his study for a great many years. Lance hated the long walk up the winding stairs from the apprentices' chambers to the Turret that he had to do every day-it would be so much easier to simply float on a pillar of Air-but tonight, he practically skipped up the steps, Pidge running alongside him. Once they entered the chamber, Lance wasted no time in forming the summoning circle, using chalk to place the lines and runes of calling upon the flagstone floor, placing polished bones and shining crystal at the connecting points to serve as conduits for magic, and setting down seven beads of iron in the center of the circle in order to bind the demon once it arrived through the vortex they were about to create. Pidge, meanwhile, searched through the pile of heavy books they'd dragged down earlier-Prophecy for Dummies, Quests and Questing, The Big Book of Creatures That Want To Kill You, 30 Ways To Convince a Chosen One To Make A Necessary Sacrifice-and let out a gleeful cry as they found the necessary counterpart to their earlier discovery of the massive magic grimoire. The first book's page read SUMMONING SPELLS, the second one read ARS DEMONICA. Their powers combined, Lance should have the necessary tools to bring about one bona fide badass demon to solve all his woes.

"OK, Lance," Pidge breathed heavily as they flipped through the Ars Demonica, "pick a demon, any demon. You've got the power to bring a lot of these but I need you to pick one I have the proper summoning words for. Doesn't leave you many options, sadly, but Shiro's locked away most of the really nasty ones. Better hope one of these is good enough to break through the Galra quintessence fields and meld them again afterwards so no one knows how we got in."

"Pfft! Shiro knew that this might be the only way of ever rescuing him should trouble arise, he wouldn't leave any list of silly weak-ass demons as his only escape option," Lance laughed, waving his hand about. He closed his eyes, skimmed down the page, and jabbed at one long scribbled line of ancient magic speech. "Go with that one. It's written in red, must mean something important."

"OK, Lance. It's your funeral if you bring about the Apocalypse or only summon a bunch of demon sheep with little red wings and horns." Pidge closed their eyes, took a deep breath, then looked at the adjoining block of text-the summoning spell-and began to read out loud, their words forming into a long, droning chant. Lance felt his breath deepen and sweat run down the palms of his hands as he stepped towards the circle, coat tossed aside and shirt removed so he could make a runic circle on his chest by smearing on his light brown skin a mix of wine and blood, and he closed his eyes as he felt the magic energy tingling in the air begin to flow through him. Pidge chanted louder and louder, Lance concentrated harder and harder, and soon enough, he felt little swirls of white lightning run up and down his torso and dance across the hairs on his arms.

"Here we go!" Lance shouted as he let loose the magic energy he'd drawn towards him, welding his willpower to the magic so that it knew what to do when flowing into the conduit points, into the circle. A rush of scarlet and silver smoke began to flare out of the ground as Pidge's words and Lance's power broke through the barrier between the mortal plane and the Shadow Domains, a hissing rush of air smacking into Lance's face as he gazed into the plane of demons and monsters for the first time in his years of studying enchantment and conjuration. Lance's heart beat faster and faster as he saw a dark figure arise from behind the wall of blood-red smoke, a figure that was a lot smaller than he hoped and humanoid in shape but surely capable of helping him free Shiro, right? It certainly wasn't a demon sheep, that was for sure.

As Pidge's voice died down and Lance felt the surge of magic leave him, draining him of a good deal of strength, Lance collapsed to the ground and let out a strangled cry as he looked at the figure stepping out of the smoke. Supposedly it was a demon but Lance, lover of anyone who was even remotely hot, found himself staring in disbelief. There was a long thin tail as red as the smoke, to be sure, and slightly pointy ears that ended in furry purple tufts but, otherwise, what stood before him was a handsome, incredibly naked young man with long black hair, deep-set eyes dark as onyx, and milk-pale skin beaded with sweat. The iron beads that had been placed in the circle for binding had transformed into some rather strange ornaments adorning the demon's body-two shackle-like iron bracelets, two iron ear piercings, two iron nipple piercings of all things, and another one that Lance couldn't make out but had to be somewhere-given how naked the young demon-man was, it couldn't be hidden and yet somehow was. Lance's lip trembled as he gazed upon the handsome devil and he couldn't help but feel some distress at how attracted he was, how hard he suddenly felt. He shook his head, got up off the floor, and quickly wiped away the circle he'd smeared upon his chest.

"Um, hi," Lance said weakly, not sure what to say, not sure where to put his eyes. Lance grabbed his shirt off of the floor, which was long enough it could cover the huge cock and dangling testicles swinging between the demon-boy's finely-sculpted legs should he don it, and thrust the garment at his new charge. "Here, uh, wear this. I'm Lance, by the way, and uh, I'm the one that summoned you. Hi."

"I'm Pidge and I helped," Pidge said happily, snickering slightly at Lance's reaction to the demon they'd summoned. Lance shot Pidge a dirty look then returned his gaze to the demon-boy as he grabbed the shirt and gave Lance a puzzled frown. "Nice nipple rings, by the way, Mr. Demon."

"Pidge, ssshhh!" Lance chided. Once the demon had shrugged the shirt on, just barely covering their groin, Lance was able to look at him again, though just barely. Naked or no, the demon boy was really hot, even if his bushy black mane of hair was a bit silly-looking, the edge of his hair tickled by the flickering thin red rope of a tail that protruded from behind. "Anyway, um, well, welcome to the mortal realm," Lance continued, "and thanks for coming. Hope you'll stay a while, we need your help. Badly."

"Uh-huh," said the demon, his mouth opening just enough that Lance could see where the seventh iron bead had went-a small metal nub pierced the demon's tongue, which made Lance wince at the same time that it intrigued him. "So. Mortals. Humans. Didn't think I'd have to deal with your kind again."

"So you've been here before, then?"

"Yep." The demon-boy went over to a couch, sat down, and thankfully pulled the shirt down so it covered his exposed groin. "The travel here's a pain in the ass, especially given how clothes can't cross over between realms so I have to deal with you prudish humans always staring and snickering." Pidge shut up immediately at that. "Oh well, I don't really care, I look amazing in clothes and out of them."

"Hell yeah you do," Lance muttered, nearly smacking himself for speaking out loud. The demon-boy raised a thin black eyebrow but said nothing.

"So," Lance eventually asked, running an awkwardly trembling hand through his shaggy brown hair, "you come here often, then?" He nearly smacked himself again-he had not meant it to sound like a pick-up line at the local tavern.

"Shiro has summoned me once or twice," the demon admitted. "I have skills and knowledge he doesn't, have helped with a few experiments of his now and then. Didn't think I'd be back, though, he promised not to contact me again. Where is he, by the way? I didn't expect some half-wit apprentice to summon me."

Lance's temper immediately switched from annoyingly turned-on to simple annoyance. "Half-wit? Where do you get off calling me that, huh? You don't seem much of a demon to me so who are you to go calling me a half-wit?"

"He's a rather observant demon, at least," Pidge quipped.

"Pidge, save the salt for later," Lance snapped, waving a hand idly. Banter between friends was reserved for less serious moments, so he felt. "You have a name, Demon-Boy, huh? Or are you just some nameless nudist here to make me look like a fool?"

"I can tell already I won't have to work hard to do that," the demon mumbled. He rolled his eyes, cracked his knuckles, and sighed. "My real name's probably too difficult for you to pronounce, Lance. How about a nice, normal human name? Like, oh, Keith, for instance?'

Lance snorted. "Keith? What kind of a name for a demon is that?! Shouldn't you be named Balthazar or Mephistopheles or something?"

"I like Keith," the demon said with a scowl, "call me Keith. Or else I go back to the Shadow Domains and you don't get what you want."

"Good luck doing that with those bits of iron all about you," Lance laughed evilly, pointing towards Keith's pierced nipples hiding beneath thin fabric of the linen shirt. "You're here for as long as that iron holds, Demon-Boy, which is until I release the spell or Shiro frees you, whichever comes first. And I'm not going to do that until you help us get Shiro back."

That made Keith the demon sit up and take notice. "Someone's holding Shiro against his will?" He licked his lips as both Lance and Pidge nodded and explained the situation with the Galra. A glint of radiant yellow light flared in Keith's eyes for a second and Lance's heart did a leap at the sight. Now he could believe that this Keith was a true demon, that there was power hidden in that slender, mostly naked body. Lance felt himself shudder again as Keith looked at him and gave a lingering smirk full of hunger and need. What would he do with the demon boy when this was all said and done? Lance didn't know but he definitely wanted to find out.

"Well, I can't leave Shiro to suffer at the hands of his enemies now, can I?" Keith stood up, clapped a hand on Lance's shoulder, and flashed a smile. "What are we waiting for, then, Lance? Let's go get him back."

*****


	2. The Trouble With Demon Boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Here's the 2nd chapter of my high fantasy AU Klance fic (well, eventual Shklance as well, you'll see..) Thanks to everyone for reading, enjoying, commenting and kudos, you're all great! Now, on with the tale :)

The next day dawned far earlier and far brighter than Lance would have liked. Staying up late and summoning an actual real life demon had taken a lot out of him. Trying to sleep in the same room as him had been even worse...

"No, you cannot sleep in my bed, Keith!" Lance had huffed after Pidge had bade him good night and he realized that he had no idea what to do with the mysterious mullet-maned demon named Keith. Lance jabbed at Keith's chest as they stood in the entrance to his small, sparse bedchamber in the Magister's Drum. "What ever gave you the idea I would let you sleep in the same bed as me?!"

Keith shrugged, his fine shoulders and delicate frame practically undulating beneath the thin linen of Lance's loaned shirt, his thin red tail swishing back and forth. He tried to act apathetic but something in his eyes suggested to Lance that Keith actually felt somewhat hurt by the rejection. "Well, whenever Shiro summoned me before and had me stay longer than one day, that's what he had me do..."

Lance's eyes widened. Shiro shared his bed with a demon? With this demon?! The thought of Shiro and Keith together in bed began to fill his frenzied, frantic mind with all kinds of dirty thoughts and he shoved it away at once. It had to have been only sleep, nothing more, Lance wouldn't believe his master would do such a thing with this demon, hot though he was. "W-well," he eventually managed to stammer out, "I'm not Shiro. I say you can't sleep in my bed tonight and that's final! Sleep on the floor or something!"

Keith's dark, glittering eyes fell upon the chamber's dusty flagstones and threadbare carpet and made a tsking noise of disgust. "You know, on second thought, I think I'll stay up. It's not even my usual resting period back in the Shadow Domains, I only figured I would sleep in deference to the customs of the human world. That and the trip here was really fucking exhausting, wish you could have called on me at a better time."

Lance thought about the kind of mischief the dark-haired demon boy could get up if left to his own devices while he slept and shivered. "Well, that's no good, either, can't have you running amok doing gods know what while I sleep-awful, unknown Keith things, no, can't have that. You know, I summoned you here, I can order you to go to sleep. You're under my command, remember?"

Keith let out a small, sharp bark of a laugh. "No, you can't and no, I'm not under your command. Shiro got rid of all the spells that forced binding demons ages ago. It's why so many of us serve him when he calls and why I will definitely help rescue him-he always asks for our consent to aid him in his magic duties and research, unlike all you human mages of old." Keith licked his lips and moved towards Lance, pushing him slightly back into the room, filling his head with worry as he realized just how much he might have messed up this summoning, how stupidly turned on he was feeling at the same time fear whispered through his veins. "Trust me, Lance the Enchanter, you have the right sort of power to summon demons-it's why I came when you called after all, I'm drawn to the heat of it, the sense of it, the all-encompassing feel of it-but you have no ability to control any one of us even with all that raw power, me especially. I will work with you but I am no servant of yours."

A small squeaking noise escaped Lance's lips as he bumped up against a sudden chair in his bedchamber, his heart hammering against his chest as Keith leaned in closer, a wicked smirk playing across his face. The apprentice enchanter looked down at his demon-no, the demon, he wasn't really his, if he ever could be-and frowned when his eyes fell upon the iron bracelets. 

"You have to be bound to me," Lance said, "I used the iron and everything. You demons are bound to whoever calls you by the iron they place in the circle, that's basic Demonology! You even mess with the iron or disobey my will it fills you with pain!"

"Pfft! Your Demonology books need an update, I think." Keith smiled, tapped at the bracelets so they unclasped then bound them again, thumbed the piercings in his earlobes, ran a finger down his outstretched tongue so it flicked at the iron knob piercing, then lifted his shirt and brushed his fingers across the rings poking out of his nipples, the sensitive flesh hardening at the touch. Lance felt a small shudder run up his spine at the sight and turned his gaze away, wishing he hadn't summoned such a good-looking demon. Things would be so much easier if it was covered in scales or slime or something. "See, Lance?" Keith said his name almost as if he were savoring it. "No pain at all when I touch them or even remove them. The iron does nothing but bind me to your plane of reality, not you or your commands. As long as one piece of iron remains upon my body, I will remain here, and only you can remove all seven pieces. That is about the only control you have over me-and trust me, I can make you remove them if I so wish." Keith grabbed at Lance's arm without warning and placed it upon his earlobe, letting his brown fingers run across the iron ring poking through pale flesh, a smile flashing across his face. "See how easy it is to make you my puppet, Lance? You're not even resisting."

Lance gulped, realized that he was suddenly, ridiculously turned on now, and pulled himself back and turned around so the demon didn't see the bulge pressing against the fabric of his tight gray breeches. Gods damn it, now was most definitely not the time to get a boner. "All right," he eventually managed to say, struggling to walk due to the stiffness between his legs, "you've made your point, Keith, I won't try to tell you what to do, okay? Happy, now?"

"Happy as I can be in this dump of a dimension," Keith sighed as he began to pace around in a circle, his tail smacking at Lance's cluttered bookshelves and tools of magic hanging from pegs jammed into the brick wall.

"I can, um, still ask you to do stuff and you'll listen, right?" Lance asked meekly. "Like ask you not to go gallivanting about the castle and terrorizing the locals, setting them on fire and eating their hearts out, that sort of thing?"

"And now you're stereotyping demons, terrific," Keith grumbled. "I've never known a fellow demon to set people on fire and eat their heart." Keith paused. "Ok, maybe once, but there was a good reason behind it. I think. Anyway, the only one likely to be a terror around here is you, Lance, I can tell that already. If you won't let me share your bed, then I'll just sit around and read these vaunted books of yours, all night maybe make notes in the margins where everything's wrong-bet I'll have to make a whole new book-and jot down little insults to you and your entire lineage for you to find later. Guess I'll have to sit on the floor seeing as you won't share your bed."

"W-why are you so insistent on sharing my bed, if you don't mind me asking?" Lance asked, still a little puzzled though much more relieved that Keith wasn't going to go destroying people randomly while he slept. Demons couldn't lie to those that had summoned him, so he'd heard. 

Keith snorted. "You really are entirely clueless about us, aren't you? Demons prefer to sleep in giant piles made up of one another, I'll have you know. It's impossibly cold in the Shadow Domains, ridiculously cold, you have no idea, we only have our fire magics and the warmth of each other to rely on. The heat you humans take for granted here is one of the only things I like about this place. Shiro knew this, of course, always offered use of his bed and his hearth and his hot water as soon as we were summoned to show how welcome we were here. I see he has made an error in judgement when it came to teaching you this part of your magic studies." Keith's fingernails elongated into blackish-purple claws for a moment and he smiled as they retracted back into ordinary fingernails. "Perhaps I can persuade him to be a better teacher when we save him."

Lance sighed and rubbed at his temples. Being attracted to the demon-boy as he was and not knowing what to do about it, he really didn't want Keith in the same bed as him tonight. Things were awkward enough between them, he didn't want to make it more awkward by rolling around and squashing Keith's tail or pressing his cock up against the demon's ass or anything. Deciding he'd much rather have Keith fully on his side with the upcoming mission at hand, however, Lance figured it was in his best interest to relent.

"Fine, whatever," he grumbled, kicking off his boots and heading towards the bed, pulling the blankets up for modesty so he could strip down to his light blue under-breeches. "If you want to share my bed, I give you permission. Just keep to your side, please, at least until we can get you some clothes, I don't want to find you all naked and sprawled all over me in the morning..."

Keith raised an eyebrow but said nothing. With a flick of his tufted purple ears, the glowing blue spirit-glass in the chamber died down and he likewise crawled into bed, turned away from Lance but keeping his body close for warmth all the same. Between the restless horniness filling him and the fact that Keith snored so loud it drowned out the ringing of the Altean temple bells at dawn, Lance was unable to get a wink of sleep. He was very much beginning to wonder if he should have let the older, wiser mages have their way and leave Shiro behind. No, of course he couldn't do that, no matter how disgruntled he was, Lance needed his master back badly...and judging by Keith's reaction to the news of the Court Wizard's capture, so did the demon-boy...

The morning went as smoothly as the previous evening had, to Lance's chagrin. A serving-maid had come in to bring fresh robes from the castle laundries, instantly freaking out as soon as she saw a red-tailed boy sharing Lance's bed, and he had to spend some time convincing several High Order Mages that he was not in fact having carnal relations with an unholy being of the underworld (much as Lance kind of was turned on by the idea, though he'd never admit it to Keith, not after how he behaved the previous night.) Finding breakfast for Keith was just as difficult as settling him down for the night had been-all manners of fried foods, scrumptious sweetmeats, juicy, succulent fruits, boiled eggs, salty bacon and honeyed cakes were brought to the demon and he turned down everything, settling only for a strange green-blue food goo that usually only High Minister Coran could stand eating. None of the clothes that Lance owned would do, either, and it was some time before the demon was pleased with what the maids brought him-tight black breeches and polished boots, a form-fitting tunic made of soft black silk, a thin belt woven from silver chain-links and a short blood-red coat that allowed free movement of his tail (and showed of his very nice demon butt, Lance noted, the only good part of the incredibly expensive new wardrobe.) Keith also had to have bath water heated to a precise temperature and sprinkled with ground-up crystal dust before he would wash, demanded a blade made of bronze for the express purpose of trimming his claws, and then claimed he needed another nap before he even bothered to see the princess and gain her approval. Before the morning was even half done, Lance was ready to toss the demon out the window and into the rushing waters of the castle moat, rescue mission or no. Instead, he just sat there and scowled as Keith murmured in his sleep, rolling about in the sunbeam shafts coming through the window as if he were a cat. Even his tail twitched as he slept.

Around the pealing of the noon bells, Keith was finally ready to head to the throne room, smiling all the while as Lance scowled and cursed beneath his breath, his red-rimmed eyes nearly ready to let loose tears of fatigue and frustration. Keith chuckled and playfully punched Lance in the shoulder as they walked the snow-white corridors of the castle, tapestries emblazoned with lions being tended to by a small army of servants. "You know, you really should try relaxing more, Lance, that frown doesn't suit you. I'm sure this princess of yours would agree with me."

"Yeah, well, that princess didn't have to deal with you being a pain in my butt all night," Lance said sourly as their journey through the castle nearly ended. Pidge was fortunately waiting for them already by the side-entrance to the throne room, as was their friend Sir Hunk, his armored bulk looming over Pidge's tiny frame, and Lance finally felt some relief as he saw his friends' faces. With them coming on the quest, he wouldn't be alone in his attempts to train this demon into becoming used to the realer, rougher aspects of the human world. "Thank the gods you guys are here," he said happily, "now I don't have to be left alone with Keith here all day."

"So, this is the demon, huh?" Hunk muttered, looking Keith up and down. He turned to Pidge and grumbled as he took out several fat golden coins and dropped them into the grinning apprentice mage's hands.

Lance frowned, his eyes quickly switching back and forth between his two friends. "What's the money for, guys?"

Hunk sighed while Pidge smirked and happily counted her coins. "I kinda made a bet with Pidge yesterday that if you did summon a demon that you'd bring back some ferocious hell-monster that could wipe out a thousand Galra at once. Pidge felt it more likely you'd get distracted and summon something pretty instead. No offense, Mr. Demon, you're not really my type but I can very much tell that you're La-"

Lance shot his hand up to cover Hunk's mouth quick as lightning before the young knight could say anything else. "Ahaha, well, that sure sounds interesting, haha. What Hunk is trying to say here is, um, by human standards you'd be considered, uh, well-"

"Devilishly handsome?" Pidge snickered.

"Shut up, Pidge," Lance hissed, "we don't need any of your snark or your bad puns right now." Hunk wrested Lance's hand away from his mouth and gave his friend a glare. Lance continued to giggle awkwardly and wiped the hand on the back of his fancy blue coat. "Um, let's just forget they said anything and go see the princess, okay, Keith? Nothing but stupid human things gong on here, no sir."

"Sure, fine, let's get this over with." Keith walked into the throne room as if he owned the place and Lance did his best to follow suit-after all, he was a McClain, his family had married into the Altean royal house on several occasions before, he kind of felt he did own at least a little part of the palace. Behind him, Pidge and Hunk shuffled forward, whispering to one another. Lance caught a snatch of their conversation and found himself chuckling as he heard Hunk ask "What kind of demon name is Keith?"

The throne room was mercifully devoid of petitioners today, merely a handful of castle servants tidying up the corners of the viewing galleries and a smattering of ministers discussing affairs of state. Princess Allura was still garbed for court as regally as the day before, however, her coronet of white gold encrusted with diamonds and moonstones, her gown fashioned from cerulean silk and cloth-of-silver. A smile spread across her beautiful brown face as she looked upon Lance, a smile that soon turned into an expression of puzzlement as she saw Keith.

"A good morrow to you, Lance of the House McClain," she said cautiously before trying to figure out how exactly to address Keith, her usually lilting, lyrical voice faltering. "And you are...?"

"Keith," the demon-boy grumbled, his deep-set eyes full of disinterest and barely open beneath heavy lids, "just Keith." He reached over to a glass bowl of brilliant white-and-red flowers sitting atop a stone pedestal, sniffed at them, then ate a couple, smiling thoughtfully as he chewed and swallowed them, stems and all. "I belong to him, I guess, in case you're wondering," Keith mumbled in between bites. 

"Oh. Isn't that nice?" Allura made a tittering, nervous little laugh, grabbed at Lance's arm, and dragged him behind the throne, face full of fury and indignation. "What are you doing bringing such a weird bedfellow here, Lance?! The throne room is not a place to bring your ridiculous and wanton catamites!"

"My what?" Lance thought back to his lessons and blushed the instant he recalled what the word catamite meant. "No, no, my fair Princess, we're not like that, trust me," he laughed nervously, trying his hardest to dispel any thoughts or signs of attraction he might have towards the demon, strange though he may be. "No, he's the demon I summoned, the one I was telling you about, that's why I came down here, to present him to you so we could embark upon our quest!"

"Oh." Allura frowned and looked back at Keith again, the demon currently busy with trying to gnaw at the glass bowl and eat that in addition to the flowers. "I suppose that explains the odd appetite--and those ears and tails, too, come to think of it. Well, thank goodness for that. For a minute there, I thought you'd brought some pretty boy from the taverns like all the rumors say..."

"Rumors?" Lance didn't like the sound of this. He had a reputation? Since when? "There are rumors about me?"

"Oh, yes. After your little display and demand to be the one to free Shiro from the Galra yesterday, well, I heard a great many whispers from the High order of Mages. Seems you have quite the reputation as a scoundrel and a bedhopper, with ladies and lordlings alike. The way that boy is dressed in those tight clothes and the way you kept looking at him, well, I'm afraid I assumed..." Allura shook her head, snow-white hair swishing everywhere. "No matter, my deepest apologies, Lance. It seems you are as capable of an enchanter as you claimed to be, quite well done for an apprentice, being able to summon an extraplanar being. Though you have certainly chosen an...odd demon to help us with our predicament."

"Oh, yeah, he's an odd one all right," Lance mumbled as he continued to watch Keith, who was now glaring at the automaton servants, looking ready to pounce on any that came close to him and beat them to a mangled mess of gears and wires. "Fussy as hell, too, and he has incredibly expensive taste and he's a bit of a pain but he's not all that bad, I guess..." He sighed contentedly and then began to babble once he realized the princess was looking at him. "He, uh, doesn't really belong to me, like he said, though, apparently the rules around summoning demons and such are much, much more complicated than I initially thought, ahaha, but don't worry, Princess, he's more than ready and willing to help us get Shiro back."

"Hmm. Doesn't look very capable of taking on the Galra or their quintessence barriers to me but if you say so, Lance..." Allura briskly walked forward, ignoring the muttering ministers nearby, and grinned as she placed a gentle, graceful hand upon Keith's narrow shoulders, careful not to touch his tail, which seemed to have a mind of its own as it moved back and forth. "My good friend, uh, Keith, traveler from the Shadow Domains, I welcome you to Altea and thank you for going forth to help rescue our beloved wizard, Shiro Sil-"

"You got any more of these flowers, lady?" Keith interrupted, picking a stem out of his teeth with an extended claw. "They're kind of tasty, better than most of the crap you humans got 'round here. I think I kinda like 'em." Behind him, Pidge grinned and Hunk cradled his embarrassed face in his huge hands. Lance felt ready to unleash a burst of fire magic at the demon before remembering that Keith would not only likely be immune to it, he would welcome the fire, given his little rant about how freezing the Shadow Domains were. Hell, knowing Keith and his complete lack of manners concerning others, he'd strip right then and there and writhe about in the flames, his pale skin tanning and glistening with sweat from the heat...no, Lance really needed to get his mind away from those thoughts. He also apparently really needed to get laid.

Allura's left eye twitched as she considered Keith and his rude behavior. "I am certain I can have some gardeners fetch you a few bowls, yes. They were placed here with the intention of brightening up the throne room's otherwise sterile ambiance, you know."

"Well, they're doing jack-shit just sitting around here, they should be put to better use as a food source for yours truly instead." Keith tossed the remnants of the half-eaten glass bowl on the floor and made way for the throne as it shattered, growling slightly as Allura grabbed his iron-bound wrist.

"That's my seat, thank you," the princess said with a glittering smile of gritted teeth; Keith surprisingly backed off without a word of disgruntlement.

Allura sat down on the throne of gold, looked over the bunch of them, sagged as she sat back and made an almost whimpering noise as she rubbed at her forehead. "My kingdom is in danger of losing one of its most valuable servants and it seems you four are all I have to help bring him back. I must admit, while looking at the lot of you, I apologize if I offend...but I'm not as confident in this mission's eventual success as I'd like to be..."

"Don't you worry, princess," Lance said proudly, doing his best to assure himself as well as the others, "we'll get Shiro back, unharmed, unscathed, and ready to serve the kingdom once more." He wouldn't make it anywhere if he gave into despair. He had his magic and charm, Pidge had their knowledge of the arcane and the obscure, Hunk was as a brilliant a fighter as he was a thinker, and Keith was a demon with abilities no one, not even Zarkon and his Darkling Mages, could replicate. They'd succeed, they had to, or else the free kingdoms of the world were certainly doomed.

"Well, I certainly hope I can develop the same sense of confidence you are currently displaying, Lance," Allura said. "Now that you four are assembled and ready to become our heroes, our Paladins, I have decided upon the course you will need to take in order to rescue Shiro. Normally, incursions into Galra territory have headed through the icy reaches of the Kerberos Pass, which until now has been relatively unguarded on the Galra side. Obviously, this has changed, given Shiro and Lord Matthew Holt's capture there. Most of the Galra border is otherwise heavily fortified and brimming with soldiers and creatures of their dark design-hell-wyrms, mindbleeders, shadow-beasts and black dragons the size of castles. There is only one place you can attempt to enter the Empire undetected, though the journey there is long and far from safe. On the other side of the Balmera Confederation you will find it: the Crystal Blight of Quiznak."

Pidge shuddered at the mention of the Crystal Blight's name. Hunk, who was quite fond of Lady Shay of the Balmera no matter how he protested, made a squeaking noise at the mere mention of it. Lance merely ran a hand through his mussed-up brown hair and said "Huh?"

"The Crystal Blight is the closest your world comes to resembling mine," Keith said with a sigh, stepping forth to stand by Lance, his close proximity making Lance feel warm all over. The demon-boy still smelled of the scarlet smoke he had arrived in. "Suffice it to say, it's not a pleasant place to visit, let alone live. Shiro took me there once, back when he was first learning to summon my kind, to deal with a few problems he'd encountered. It won't be easy, but I can get us through there as well as into the Galra Garrison."

Allura nodded timidly. "I had hoped you would be able to. I'll admit, Keith, your initial appearance did not fill me with much hope for the success of this mission-you seem more boy than demon, no matter your actions-but if you have seen the Blight, then you know the grave dangers it holds, you know how to help the others survive it. I will count on you to get them through the Blight in one piece, there and back again."

"I'd like to know how to help the others," Lance said, raising his hand as if he were in school, waiting to be called on by a teacher. "And I'd really, really like to know about what dangers we might face, given that I'm kind of allergic to grave danger, makes me come out in hives, its not pretty. Seeing as I'm kind of the leader here, don't you think I should know about all this?"

Keith snorted with derision as he looked Lance up and down, an evil grin flickering across his face. "You're the leader? Since when? I'll admit, you may have come up with this plan and be the one to summon me and all, but you're not really cut out for the whole leadership thing, from what I can tell. You couldn't even get breakfast right."

"You know what, Keith? You can shut your-"

"Neither of you's the leader," Pidge declared, standing straight and as tall as they possibly could. "I am, all right? It'll make everything easier for all of us if I just decide what we do so you two don't get stuck in eternal pissing contests and risk the mission the entire time."

"Sounds good to me," Hunk added with a fervent nod, backing away slightly from the glares Keith and Lance both gave him.

"Besides, my father has taken me through many of the lands on the way there," Pidge added. "We've been to Arusa and Balmera, stopped by the the moving mechanical cities of Sendak, even visited the forest temples of the Megatheri and had tea with the High Sloth Monk himself. I can get us there with no trouble at all, especially with Rover helping me out here." Pidge happily nodded at their mechanical familiar, which kept beeping and blooping as it flew in circles around Keith's head, driving the demon slightly mad with its dizzying circuit of a path. "That all right with you, your Highness?"

"More than all right," Allura said, her voice far more pleasant and relaxed than it had been the whole meeting. The two boys grumbled at her words even though Lance knew it probably was for the best that Pidge take over. "Fine, then, you all have my blessing to embark upon your quest and bring back unto us Shiro Silverfist and Matthew Holt. Be warned, though-should you be captured by the Galra, I cannot confirm that your mission was authorized nor have you rescued, not without risking much of the balance of power between nations. The war being raged is deadly and disastrous enough, we do not need them to have further cause to press their armies against us. I have been counselled to have an exchange of hostages and give concessions to the Galra to gain them back and I will not do it, not when I could possibly get him back without risking lives and advantages in war. Speaking of which-Keith, should you all be captured, I do not want the Galra gaining you as an ally or a weapon. Do I have your word that you will return to your realm should capture be imminent?"

"It'll require Lance here to release all my iron bonds but yeah, sure." Keith gave him a wicked grin again and Lance shuddered slightly as he remembered Keith's earlier display of all the iron upon his body. Oh gods, when this was all said and done, he'd have to touch Keith's tongue, his chest...hell, heated though their bickering seemed capable of getting, perhaps he should try to pursue Keith as a bedfellow-after all, this quest would be long and likely full of moments of boredom punctuating all the peril they'd encounter. Might as well give it a shot some night...

"I'll release his bonds, no problem, your highness," Lance found himself saying quickly after he realized silence had filled the throne room. The princess nodded, stepped down the throne, and waved at them to follow her. 

"To the Tower of the First Lion, then. If you four are going forth on a dangerous quest on my behalf, I wish to give you as many provisions as you need. And I want to assure that you all travel in style."

At the base of the tower, on a cliff of black rock overlooking the crystal-clear waters of the castle moat, sat five creatures Lance had only heard about but had never before seen: the royal winged lions of Voltron. Immortal beasts the size of small elephants, their manes and coats of furs all different colors-black, green, red, blue and yellow-their eyes glimmering like gemstones, their claws, wings and tails and fierce and fearsome to behold. Lance let out a long whistle of approval as he looked upon the royal beasts, the reality of his situation suddenly dawning on him: he was going to get to fly one of these things half-way across the world. Flying a dragon was one thing, anybody with enough gumption to break into the dragon hold and ride one of those scaly-backed beasts. Few were ever given permission to take the Voltron lions out for a flight around the green valleys and hills of Altea, let alone the world. Getting to fly one of these beasts alone was worth the effort to go rescue his master.

"Be brave, my Paladins, and be safe," Allura told them as they were directed by the castle staff as to how they were supposed to ride the incredibly huge creatures. "In the saddle-bags you will find food, clothing, money, weapons, books of magic, tokens of trade, materials for temporary shelter and potions that should heal many sicknesses and wounds, everything you should need to proceed on this journey safely. The fifth lion here, the black one, shall go with you as well so Shiro and Matt have something to ride back here on. If you succeed in your quest, you will be praised as heroes of the realm. If not, well..." Allura fell silent. "All I can say is: Good luck!" She gave a beaming grin and a thumbs up, then turned back towards the castle, silken gown swishing as she darted up the white marble steps carved into the hillside.

Pidge sighed, grabbed at the reins and yelled "Hyaaa! Yip Yip!" The giant green lion took off without much fanfare, yawning as if it were bored. Hunk, who's voice was slightly shaky, did the same, and he yelped in panic as his giant yellow lion flapped its heavy wings something awful and took off with such a thunderous launch it overtook Pidge's in a matter of seconds.

Lance turned from his blue lion-which he felt was the coolest looking of the bunch and no mistake-and gave Keith what he hoped was his most winning grin. He needed the surly demon on his side if he was going to pull this off. "So, then, ready to go rescue Shiro at last?"

Keith was silent and still as he sat astride his sleek red lion, its snarling maw looking quite menacing. After several minutes, Keith turned to face Lance, smiled softly, and said, "Yeah. Let's go get Shiro back."

The lions took off into the sky, circling over the tower courtyard over and over again, until at last they formed a gaping vortex of crackling purple lightning and indigo fire, a wormhole to the other side of the kingdom, the first of many they would form on their path to Shiro and Matt's freedom. The lions flew in with a great whoosh of sound and fury, bringing Lance closer to the other side of the world, closer to the master he wished to rescue, closer to the glory and honor he had sought in his role as enchanter for years.

And, he hoped, bringing him closer to understanding and knowing Keith.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, well, that's Chapter 2 done! That one was difficult to write as I've got a bit of a cold and am still trying to figure out where exactly the story's headed, sorry if it's a bit of a filler chapter as I get ideas sorted out, hope it was still fun to read and that everyone comes back to enjoy the rest of the story! Thanks again for any and all feedback and for reading! Chapter 3 will hopefully be up in another couple days. Until then, happy reading here on ao3! :)
> 
> EDIT: For some reason, just like my last fic, this story is not showing up as having been updated on the Voltron: Legendary Defender page (though it is under the Voltron fandom page, which seems to be smaller, sigh.) Anyway, hope people still find this and that it gets resolved by the next time. Oh well...


	3. Fire and Ice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! And thanks for continuing to read and support this fic (and its writer). Here's Chapter 3 of this strange company's quest to retrieve their captured friend Shiro from the clutches of the Galra. What manner of danger will they find as they reach the frontier at the edges of Altea and the Free Kingdoms? How will Keith annoy/attract Lance this time (and vice-versa)? Read on and find out...Also, thanks for any and all kudos, comments and for reading/enjoying the fic, you've all been great!
> 
> NOTE: For anyone not accustomed with certain magic terminology used in the story, I'm using the names of some old elementals as names for certain basic magic forces, so sylphic=air, gnomic=earth, undinic=water, salamandric=fire, from the creatures often associated with those elements, sylph, gnome, undine, and salamander. Hope that helps!

"Get it off me! Get it off me!" Lance shrieked as something long, black, squishy and covered in bristling red spines wriggled and wrapped itself around his arm. 'What the hell is this thing?!"

"Looks like fell-spawn to me," Pidge grunted from their seat by the campfire at the center of their little night-time shelter in the green glades of the Arusian woods, casually perusing a thick and heavy tome while Lance wriggled on the ground at the mercy of the strange beast. "That's a hell-wyrm in its infant stage, which you'd know if you hadn't skipped Master Shiro's class on Basic Bestiaries. It probably just hatched a while ago, likely looking for food. Quite harmless, Lance, just flick it off and cast a water spell if you want it to go away, they hate water."

"Fine! I'll do that then!" Lance whacked at the squishy beastling with his right fist, then grabbed his belt knife and bonked it upside the head with the hilt. The creature squirmed and emitted some sort of strangled cry but it didn't budge an inch. Frustrated with all the lethal wildlife out to get him-five days of flying through Altea and then Arusia via wormholes generated by the winged-lions and resting at the end and this had to be the tenth creature to attack him-Lance decided on a quicker method to rid himself of the fell-spawn than the short scare of a spell Pidge suggested.

"Let's see you deal with this, you little shit," Lance laughed as he snagged his rune-etched silver medallion from his coat pockets, ran a thumb over the runes for Water and Air, and felt a surge of sylphic and undinic magic wash over him. "Spawn of a fire-based beast like you isn't going to like an Ice Beam now, will you?" Moisture and air condensed into Lance's free hand, forming a sphere of energy, and with a wrathful grunt he tossed the icy blast at his other arm. He smiled for a second until he realized that his spell only kind of worked.

On the one hand, this freed him of the fell-spawn, sending it flying several feet away into the underbrush, no longer wriggling, now encased in a jagged chunk of ice. On the other hand, this now left Lance's left arm also entirely encased in ice.

"Fuck my life!" Lance scowled as he ran his thumb over the fire rune and searched for some sign of the salamandric forces of magic that surely had to be suffusing the landscape in some way, either via the series of leylines running through the ground or in the background magic field generated by all life force. Nothing happened. Lance did his best to calm down, re-align his mage-trained internal senses, and breathed deeply as he sought a way to grasp and manipulate those forces. Still nothing happened.

"Oh, come on!" Lance grumbled, stomping his feet and waving his frozen arm around as if that would free him from the trap of his own making. "There's a fucking campfire right there! Why am I not getting any results?!"

Keith the demon-boy, who had spent much of the trip sullen and sour-faced, perking up mostly whenever anyone mentioned Shiro, grunted from the thick-trunked blackwood tree he had made his perch for the night. "Probably my fault, Lance, sorry."

"What? How is this your fault?" Lance marched over to the tree, where Keith was hanging upside-down from a branch by his curling red tail, arms crossed and folded against his chest, and jabbed a finger in the demon-boy's face. "Get down from there now and fix this, if it's your fault! Now!"

Keith's wide, toothy grin flashed for the first time since leaving the Grand Lion Castle in Altea. "Can I get a please first, o mighty Lance the Enchanter?"

Lance was ready to throttle him. Why, oh why, couldn't he have summoned a rampaging demon that was not only capable of murdering ten thousand Galra in its sleep but also was polite and helpful and just as good-looking?' Fine. please," Lance grumbled.

Keith's grin grew wider as he swung forward on his prehensile tail, bringing his upside-down face awfully close to Lance's, their lips nearly touching they were so near one another. "And what do I get in return, Lance, hmmm?" His hot breath hit Lance's face, smelling of cinnamon, and Lance felt himself go ever so slightly weak in the knees as it lingered on his face. Damn, he really wished he'd summoned a different demon now, the past few days together had been nearly unbearable.

"You'll...you'll get my eternal gratitude, Keith. And, uh, a treat when we go down to the market town before heading out tomorrow." Lance gulped and stepped back a bit, careful not to bump into any rocks or anything, his gaze still held firmly by the deep, dark demon eyes burning into him, almost hot enough to make the ice around his arm melt. 

Keith shrugged, unwrapped his tail from the tree branch, and did a flip in mid-air as he landed on the ground, his short red coat flaring around his black-clad torso. "Fine, guess that's good enough. For now."

"F-for now?" Keith didn't respond to Lance's stuttering question, he merely placed a hand upon the frozen arm, his claws thankfully retracted, and began to mumble something in one of the six hundred and sixty-six demon languages that Lance knew not a single word of, his eyes closed while he spoke. Ripples of red light emanated from Keith's hand and Lance shuddered as heat ran through and steam rose up, the ice melting so fast that Lance's arm was quickly drenched instead.

"T-thank you, Keith," Lance sighed happily, taking off his long blue coat and wringing the water out of the soaked sleeve. "What did you mean by that being your fault, by the way? I would really like a good fucking explanation as to why I couldn't summon fire properly just then."

"Performance anxiety?" Pidge suggested from their perch on the green lion snoring by the fire, legs dangling over the giant furry legs, a small grin spreading beneath the giant spectacles.

"Shut up, Pidge," Lance snapped, ignoring his the snickers of his fellow apprentice. "Why don't you and your pet robot go find Hunk? He's been out in the woods pissing an awful long time!"

"I'm right here, guys," Hunk said a moment later, leaving large footprints in the soft, sandy soil as he tromped out of the bracken and bushes, huffing slightly as he'd clearly been running, a difficult feat while wearing a suit of armor. "Uh, what's been going on here?"

"Lance froze a beastling and then himself and then Keith freed him and they've been having a bit of a lover's quarrel because Lance's having issues with his magic," Pidge explained.

"We're not having a lover's quarrel," Lance snarled between clenched teeth, trying his hardest not to blush. Keith merely brushed a lock of inky hair out of his face, saying nothing, acting as if he didn't care. "And I'm not having issues! Keith here did some nasty, unholy demon thing even though he's supposed to be on our side, didn't you?"

Keith sighed and gave Lance an indignant glare, his tail twitching violently behind him. The corner of his lip curled up just so, suggesting and hinting at a smirk. "Trust me, Lance, if I did something unholy to you, you'd know it."

Lance gulped, tried his hardest not to panic, and ran his hand over the medallion that was his connecting point, linking with any and all magic he could find nearby. Pillars of rock shot out of the earth, wisps of wind darted and rustled his clothes as they grew faster and full of energy, spears of ice leapt out of his hands as he summoned water to him and embedded themselves in the tree trunk right behind Keith's smug face. "See? I'm still good with three out of the four basic elements. What the hell's wrong with fire?"

"Remember me telling you about how demons come from a frozen wasteland the other night, back when we were in bed together?"

"Could you please not phrase it like that?" Lance said, his voice almost a yelp. In the background, Hunk and Pidge ignored them as his big-bellied friend frantically explained something to their party's leader with a great many wild hand gestures.

"Fine, whatever, Lance. Anyway, cutting to the chase-we're creatures of fire, we demons of the High Clutches of the Shadow Domains, and we need heat like a fish needs water. Here in the human realm, where there's so much heat you're practically drowning in it, well, I get a little greedy, absorb as much heat as I can, the heat of a flame, the heat of the sun, body heat, you name it. Start storing it away in the helio-sac-that's an organ we demons have, somewhere near our spleen, quit making that face, it's not that gross-and save it for back when I'm stuck in a deadly blizzard. The simple heat of that campfire there can sustain me for days, if need be. Right now, well, it's only a flicker of light, really, 'cause I've been drinking it all in. Same for any flame magic you tried to summon."

"That is supremely weird," Lance said with a shake of his head. "You look almost human, I almost kind of forget you're not. You don't look anything like I thought a demon would."

"Well, I am of the High Clutches, after all," Keith said as he turned away, thumbing at the dangling iron piercing of his left ear. "We tend to take on more humanoid appearances than most demon sub-species. If you wanted something with a hundred eyes and legs and venom dripping from fangs and claws that could puncture titanium, well, you should have tried a different spell. I'm sure I've seen Shiro keep those kind of books in his chambers before..."

"Yeah, he did, but most of them were under lock and key. Damn, speaking of books, wish I had that copy of The Big Book of Creatures That Want To Kill You right now, would've come in handy a moment ago." Lance stroked his chin, wondering what Hunk was so desperately whispering about to Pidge, then snapped his fingers as another thought arose to prominence. "Wait. A demon of the High Clutches-holy fuck, does that mean you're a prince?!"

Keith shrugged and smiled, his black mane almost swirling in the residual burst of wind Lance had summoned. "I don't know what equivalent my rank in the Shadow Domains would be here. I could be a prince for you, though, if that's what you'd like, Lance."

Lance was done. He merely made a squeak as Keith tilted his head back and laughed wickedly. Fortunately for Lance, Pidge dashed over to them just then, amber brown eyes wide behind the spectacles, face paler than normal.

"You know that fell-spawn you just iced a minute ago? Turns out Hunk ran into its mother when he was out there and it's pissed beyond belief that its baby's gone missing."

"Great." Lance smacked his forehead. "Another creature with reason to kill me. Sure we couldn't just ice this one, too?"

"Have you actually seen a hell-wyrm before, Lance?" Pidge said with exasperation. In the background, Hunk was waving his arms about in an attempt to convey the creature's enormity, his broad face a mask of panic. "No, we simply can't just "ice" a hell-wyrm, not without a small army of enchanters on hand."

"What about the weapons Allura gave us?" Lance said with a snap of his fingers, sure he'd found the solution to their successful evasion of a wrathful wyrm. "Those Barnyard things or whatever?"

"Bayards," Pidge mumbled, their tiny face held tight in their tiny hands, clearly done with Lance's shortcomings as an enchanter. "How Shiro hasn't tossed you out of his class...hmph. And no, Lance, they can't work, not until we get to the market. Seems someone forgot to power up the charging crystals and we need to get some new ones pronto."

"Don't look at me," Hunk said as Pidge leveled an accusing glance at the bulky knight. "I helped pack the provisions but that was it, don't ask me who packed the weapons. Some castle servants or something."

"Perhaps one of them was a spy-" Keith interjected before being interrupted by several thunderous short bursts of stomping and snarling. The four of them turned their heads toward the forest, the winged lions behind them bristling and sitting up, their glowing eyes brimming with interest. The stomping continued to grow closer and closer, the snarling soon turned to shrieking and slobbering, smacking sounds, and Lance nearly wet his pants as a sharp burst of white-hot silver-edged flame burst out of the woods and carved a swath of burning mud through the ground, barely five feet from where Lance and Keith stood.

"Anyway you can absorb the heat of this thing's fire?" Lance asked quickly.

"Nope, that's too hot, even for me," Keith said, his usually calm, collected voice suddenly rattled. "I'm not ready to face one of these, not yet, I'm still too new to this world. I say we run."

"I second that!' Hunk shouted as the now-burning trees exploded, revealing a house-sized mass of black-and-silver flesh covered in gleaming chitinous scales and sharp crimson spikes the length of a full-grown man-the hell-wyrm, revealed in its full fury at last. The four of them shouted and swore as they dashed to their lions, snatching what belongings they could from the campground, and did their best to fly away as quick as they could. The hell-wyrm's mighty maw, filled to the brim with sharp spear-like teeth dripping in foam and froth, snapped and snatched as the squad of lions swooped and soared into the air. Fear filled Lance to the very fiber of his being as the hell-wyrm sought them out in the sky, his eyes and body quivering as he saw the ferocious beast take off from the ground and follow them, and yet, he couldn't help but let out a triumphant yelp as they moved further and further into the star-speckled night sky, leaving bulky blobbish clouds in their wake.

"Higher up!" Pidge shouted. "We have to get far up enough that the hell-wyrm can't follow us into the wormhole! Think you guys can push your lions to the limit?"

"No!" Hunk shouted back as he disappeared into the dark. "But I'll try anyway! Yip yip, um, Yellow Lion. Damn, we need to think of names for you guys..."

"Lance!" Pidge shouted just then as they began to clear a bank of clouds obscuring almost all of his vision. He couldn't even make out where the others were, the cloud mass was so thick. "Lance! Watch out!"

"Huh?" Lance turned his head as his blue lion sped out of the cloud-bank and into an open patch of sky, the silvery-gold disk of the moon hanging high overhead. A great rush of heat and wind billowed up from beneath him and he looked down, knowing full well that hell-wyrm was coming for him, the one who slew one of its many hideous young. Lance shouted with anger and desperation as he tossed salvo after salvo of summoned ice beams at the creature but like Pidge said, that wasn't enough to do more than  
cause the creature some minor annoyance. No matter how Lance tugged at the reins and drove his blue lion forward, the hell-wyrm continued to chase him, their flight almost like a dance, dark figures skating in circles across a background of stardust and ash. The hell-wyrm was simply too fast, too full of violence and vigor, for Lance to outmaneuver the beast. With no wormhole coming until all five could fly safely, he turned his lion around, shouted the filthiest swear he could think of, and flew straight for the creature's hungry, fearsome mouth, hoping to cast enough ice at the wyrm's set of twelve milky-white eyes and blind it, keep it from following him. If that didn't work...

"Lance! I got this!" Swooping out of nowhere and pushing Lance's lion out of the way, Keith and his red lion hovered in the air, the demon-boy standing up on its back, his stance firm as he held his position between the lion's furry shoulder blades. Lance's eyes widened as Keith shouted a word he couldn't comprehend-the sheer sound of it alone was enough to scratch at his soul-and let loose a sphere of crackling purple light from his left hand. The vivid energy rippled across the hell-wyrm's face, suffused the creature with an unearthly glow, then caused literal fountains of bluish-black blood to spurt out of the crimson spines and stain the night sky.

The hell-wyrm screamed, flapped and flailed about in mid-air as it filled with pain, then plummeted to the ground far below, the enormous wings and coiling ropes of its long, fleshy body warping like a whip in mid-crack. A deafening boom soon followed from the Arusian forest below, sending cascades of dirt and flocks of birds high up into the sky. Keith stood still as he looked down below on the violence he had caused, the chaos he had created. Lance didn't know what to say. Never had he seen such raw and terrible energy come from one person before, not even from Master Shiro. Truly, Keith was a demon of great power beyond Lance's understanding.

The moment of awe over, Lance swore as he realized what had just happened. Not only was he attracted to the damn demon when he didn't want to be, Keith just had to go and save his life, too!

"Damn, Keith," Pidge said a moment later, their lion flying into a position between red and blue, Hunk and his yellow lion, with the black lion tagging along, joing them as well, so they were in a sort of formation. "What was that?"

"Quintessence," Keith said simply. "It was difficult for me to access here as there is not much of it in a place crawling with such creatures unless it's base energy line is drained from elsewhere. I didn't know hell-wyrms like this grew in the Free Kingdoms."

"You're right, they usually don't." Pidge frowned, then began to look at all of them in turn. "Between the charging crystals already being drained and a hell-wyrm showing up where it shouldn't, I wonder if Keith's suggestion of a spy might not be accurate."

Lance chewed his lip in thought. "Hmph. You know, it does feel like someone's been out to get us this whole time. A spy at court might explain why Shiro and Matt were captured as well when no one ever guards the Kerberos Pass. Someone could have passed along the knowledge of their intelligence mission without anyone being the wiser. Demon-Boy-I mean, Keith, probably is right, someone is working for the Galra right under everybody's noses."

"But why?" Hunk asked. "And who? And why are they following us?"

"Likely to make sure they keep being rewarded for Shiro's capture," Keith said with a scowl, his voice an almost deadly whisper. "And because it's likely someone Shiro knows, someone who sold him out. If we bring Shiro back, they'll be discovered and all their treachery undone. Who knows how much they've cost your royal court in this long and bloody war you all keep fighting? If they kill us, boom, no more rescue missions for Shiro, they get to keep their cushy position and keep their head as they continue to spy and bring about Altea's downfall."

Silence followed Keith's words, the air still as glass save for the smoke and dust from below and the flapping of the lions' wings. Then, Pidge said "I know it was my suggestion there but I'm not so sure about this. It's all really just supposition. We don't really have any proof there's a spy, just a couple of circumstantial events that don't have any link connecting them together. We're just rattled by the flight from danger, that's all, no one's out to kill us yet."

"I don't know, Pidge," Lance grumbled, "all of nature's been out to kill me the past few days. Those lurk-crabs at the pond, that fucking vampire sheep back in the mountains, that not-so-friendly mushroom that gave me hives and visions for an hour..."

"Yes, but-again- we can't prove that there's any one person or groups of persons behind this," Pidge said sharply. "At least, not yet. Let's make the wormhole now and leave, forget the market town here. The map says there's another just two hops away-we'll lose a little sleep but we can make it by morning. Whoever's following us-if anyone is-won't have time to set any traps if we move quick enough tomorrow. If we keep encountering danger like that, though...well, then I'll believe someone's out to get us."

Lance frowned but nodded his assent after a moment. Pidge was the leader, even if this was his quest, he had to give Pidge their due respect. "Very well, I'm in. What about you two?"

Hunk nodded as well but Keith merely scowled and turned his pale, glaring face away, anger burning inside him like the hell-wyrm's fire. Lance knew he was worried about Shiro but he seemed especially upset by the fact that this might not be an accident of happenstance but the result of an actual plot against his usual human summoner. Wondering what connection lay between the two and what connection lay between him and Keith now given the demon had saved his life, he grudgingly nudged his lion towards Keith's and looked deep into the demon's eyes.

"Keith," Lance said, "Pidge is right, we should continue the quest. If there is someone out there trying to stop us, we'll have plenty of chances to take them down if we do encounter them." He paused, licked his lips, and tried his hardest not to stammer as he spoke. "Also, I, uh, kind of want to thank you for, um, saving my life back there. That was really something, what you did. You're kind of fucking amazing."

Keith's disturbed, distraught expression melted and molded into one a little less solemn, a little more his usual self-well, his usual smirking asshole-ish self. "Glad to hear you say something sensible at last, Lance. Maybe you're not as big a fuck-up as I thought."

"Pfft. Please, I'm an even bigger fuck-up than-hey!" Keith laughed himself silly as Lance fumed and balled his hands into fists. "You watch it, demon boy, just because I owe you now doesn't mean it has to be any time soon. You watch out, you here?"

The smirk that Keith returned was even more wicked than the one he'd worn as he'd hung upside-down from the tree, face close enough to have given Lance a kiss. "Oh, Lance, don't worry, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on you."

"Enough already, you two," Pidge said, rolling their eyes as they summoned the wormhole and nudged their winged lion forward. "There's bound to be a tavern at the next town, you two should both get a room, the sexual tension between you two is killing me..."

Hunk laughed, Keith snorted and Lance let out a strangled cry as they followed Pidge into the interstitial ether, the folding space between dimensions, where the lions flew to and fro, their bickering and bantering heard even over the din of the collapsing forest below, completely unaware that, somewhere in the woods, at the top of an old abandoned ruin of a tower, there was indeed someone watching them.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, and Chapter 3 is a wrap! I should have the next chapter up in a couple days, so hope you enjoy this and look forward to the next section of the quest to rescue Shiro! Thanks for reading, all kudos and comments and enjoyment of the story is/are appreciated! :)


	4. Town of Temptations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone and thanks again for following (and hopefully enjoying) this fic! Here's Chapter 4, up sooner than anticipated as I had some unexpected free time to write tonight. Now that Lance, Keith, Pidge and Hunk have escaped the terrifying and unexpected hell-wyrm, they make their way for a market town at the edge of Arusia, hoping to stock up on supplies before heading further into the more dangerous stretches of their mission. The town holds much that is enticing, especially for Lance...Mildly NSFW for this chapter for those who care, much more smut later on, of course. Anyway, thanks again for reading, commenting, kudos, etc., I appreciate each and every one of my readers :)
> 
> EDIT: Due to yet more computer repair problems, this fic's next update is delayed for a couple of days, sorry to everyone looking forward to Chapter 5. I'll try to have a bunch of chapters up in a row once I get my stupid laptop back, hopefully in proper working condition this time. Until then, enjoy what's here so far! :)

The fifth and final wormhole of the journey away from the wooded valley of the hell-wyrm attack finally burst into its full fiery glory, much to Lance's relief. Awesome though the first couple of flights into the interstitial ether had been, he had quickly grown tired of the slight nasuea-inducing otherworldly void of churning purple clouds and howling winds. The real world was far better as far as he was concerned-except for the parts of it that were trying to kill him.

"All right, everybody!" Pidge called from the back of their green lion, voice saddled with the fatigue of a full night's travel. "Looks like we're here. The riverside port and market town of Hornford. Once we cross the other side we should be in Balmeran territory and then we simply have to make our way through several stretches of wilderness and the occasional city and we'll be at the Crystal Wastes of Quiznak in no time."

"Thank the gods," Hunk breathed, looking so tired as to be ready to fall off of the back of his yellow lion and into the rushing river cutting an arc through the green plains below. Though the burly young knight had clearly endured many a hard time himself in his years of training and service to the royal family, Lance knew for a fact that Hunk couldn't stand pulling all-nighters, no matter how well-rested he'd been before. "Anyway we can actually stop here for more than a few minutes? I'd really love a good night's sleep in a soft feather bed."

"Here, here," Lance agreed. "Some wine wouldn't be amiss, either, and maybe the company of a pretty girl or boy to help ease my troubles on this long, tiring journey..."

"We'll buy what we need to, eat something, maybe rest for a little, then leave as soon as possible," Pidge grunted. When Lance balked and whined, Pidge shot him a dirty look and stuck out their tongue. "Sorry, Lance, I know you're tired, we're all tired. And we'll rest as long as we need to once we reach Hornford, but not for a moment more. Every second we spend not traveling is another second Shiro and my brother have to languish in a Galra prison. Not to mention the fact that we may have a spy on our hands-the longer we linger, the longer he, she or they have to catch up with us and conjure up some more trouble."

"You know, that's something that's been troubling me," Keith said from his red lion, surprising Lance with his quiet, curious tone of voice, no hint of fatigue showing whatsoever in his words. The demon rarely spoke up unless addressed-perhaps he thought he could become a part of their team after all? Lance surely hoped so, considering he'd summoned the difficult demon to help him in the first place. "If we do have a spy, and they were there to bring a hell-wyrm into our midst, does that mean they have some sort of advanced teleportation magic we're not aware of? I mean, we're all worried about them following us and yet I don't think anyone's actually stopped to think how they would accomplish this unless they either can teleport or have wormhole-hopping lions of their own."

"A fair point," Lance grudgingly admitted. "Shiro always said teleportation was considered theoretically possible but had yet to be accomplished apart from linking with one of the Great Creatures like the royal winged lions or one of the robo-beasts the Galra have."

"Huh, you do actually listen to him some times," Pidge said. Lance flipped Pidge off, earning a devious little giggle from his small enchanter friend. "Anyway," Pidge continued, "I had considered that possibility, Keith. The royal lions are rare these days but there is a small pride of them living at the base of the mountain beneath the Castle. If there is a spy, I imagine they're high up in the Altean court, meaning they probably have access to the lions and either stole one or was graciously given one for personal use with Princess Allura none the wiser. Which means they can catch up pretty damn quickly if they want. That's the assumption I've been working under this whole time-so all the more reason we take no more time in Hornford than necessary."

"See, everyone, this is why Pidge is the leader," Hunk said with a small, cackling chuckle, earning an amused grin from Pidge. "They were thinking this all up hours before Keith even spoke. You two stick to the magic stuff you both do so well, leave me to any sword-fighting and cooking, and let Pidge think about how we do things on this quest and we should be golden."

"All right, Dad," Lance shot back, shifting uncomfortably as the blue lion began to spiral downward to the town of Hornford on the river, a spearhead shooting from the sky.

"If anyone's your Dad on this mission, it's Shiro," Pidge called back, voice slightly lost in the gusty gales of wind billowing past. "So let's get in, get out, and go rescue him!"

They all whooped happily as the lions sped up their descent, their golden eyes glittering, their fur-rimmed maws opening wide to let out garrulous growls, low rumbling purrs that resonated all across their body and made Lance's whole body shudder. He looked over to see how the others were doing and caught Keith looking at him from the red lion nearby, his eyes practically smoldering as he held his gaze firm, the demon's lips sliding into a seductive smirk. Lance turned his head away swiftly, feeling beads of sweat run down his forehead, his hands suddenly going moist and getting covered in small clumps of lion fur as a result. Damn, did that demon-boy really have the hots for him? He certainly enjoyed making him squirm, it seemed, that was for sure. Whenever Keith hadn't been glowering, napping, or eating inappropriate things on this trip (why did he try to eat a moss-covered rock of all things?), he had been spending his time making Lance's life one-part miserable, one-part turned on. The longer and longer they kept away from civilization, the worse it got. Lance sincerely hoped that this town had someone cute to distract him for a little while, just so he could get his mind away from Keith.

Down and down the spiralling lions went, eventually settling in a small thicket of trees at the border of town, stretched wings flapping and folding as the lions curled up into one big sleeping fuzzball pile. As the four questers disembarked, their legs wobbling from the hours of continuous riding, Pidge yanked out their massive magic tome and began to chant the words necessary for bending the dappled, leaf-filtered light into a Shroud of Illusion around the lions. Lance stretched his arms, cracked his knuckles, and summoned his power and abilities as well, joining them to Pidge, making the Shroud of Illusion that much stronger. A circle of red light flickered and coursed through the rick black soil beneath their feet, completing its path at the edge of the black lion's paws. A moment later, a glossy bubble formed over the lions and shimmered into existence, leaving only a field of dirt and patches of soft blue grass where once their had been lions.

"Um, how exactly are we going to find the lions again without being able to see them?" Hunk wondered, scratching at his thick mop of dark hair. Lance chuckled and butted in before Pidge could give their usual expository spiel.

"As the casters of this spell, both Pidge and I can see the signature of the enchantment and can unravel it, no problemo, Hunk. If you need to find the lions, just find one of us"

"I can see it, too," Keith piped up. "Demon eyes can see all sorts of things, you have no idea." His thin scarlet tail whipped back and forth excitedly as he looked Lance up and down, causing the young enchanter to pull his thick blue coat around him even tighter than he normally would. Damn it, could he really see through his clothes? Or was he just messing with him again? No matter how hot or annoying Lance found the dark-haired demon, he'd never get over how much of a tease he could be.

"All right, everybody, let's try to stick together!" Pidge called, grabbing a long, thin stick from the bracken beneath the trees and using it as a walking stick. "Let's head to the nearest tavern, grab a bite to eat, then get to the market for our charging crystals. We can use the coin Allura gave us to get a room for a few hours' rest, if you all want, maybe even check out the bath-house. But first-lunch."

"Music to my ears!" Hunk agreed happily, licking his lips. Lance nodded likewise but Keith merely pouted, clearly upset at the thought of yet more human food he disliked. Well, Lance thought, maybe he'd find something more to his liking here in the frontier of Arusia. At least they'd be bound to have more of those flowers out here.

Hornford proved to be a bustling albeit bucolic burg of a town even at that early morning hour, carts and wagons laden with people and goods trundling along wide cobbled streets, merchants crying their wares from outside their slate-roofed shops, children laughing and playing as they tossed balls at one another or whacked wooden swords together in the alleys. Hornford was so charming and quaint it nearly made Lance want to vomit. He vastly preferred living back in the Altean capital, where there was soaring architecture, stunning views and sprawling streets just brimming with adventure and excitement around every corner. The only excitement that was likely waiting around any corner in Hornford was the possibility of stepping in a pile of horse-shit or getting pushed in the river.

"Sure we came to the right town, Pidge?" Lance asked, stroking his chin as he stared at the clean, simple town passing him by, the half-timbered houses and kindly townfolk almost looking like a woodcut from some book of morals the priests might publish. Hell, things were so peaceful here, they hadn't even been stopped by any guards at the gates, just given a wave and a cheery greeting. "I've never known a market town to be so, well, cute and jolly. It's kind of sickening."

"I'm with Enchanter Boy on this one," Keith grudgingly acknowledged, stuffing his tail beneath the folds of his black tunic and drawing up his hood over his tufted ears in case any of the townsfolk got worried at a demon in their midst. "This place looks a little too sweet for my liking, so sweet that everyone's pooping candy."

"That's some lovely imagery, Keith," Lance said as they turned the corner of the main street. "Also-Enchanter Boy? What the hell happened to just calling me Lance?"

Keith rubbed at the iron bracelets encircling his wrists, smiling at his reflection in the polished metal. "Well, you've called me Demon Boy a few times, figured I might try doing the same."

"According to the map and the notes," Pidge said, ignoring them as they yanked rolls of crumpled parchment out of the pockets of their green-white robes, "Hornford is actually considered one of the most pleasant towns in all of Arusia, despite being on the border where one might expect conflict. And that's because most of their conflict is taken care of by The Peacekeeper, the centerpiece in the middle of their marketplace-right over there..."

The four questers stopped dead in their tracks, eyes widening and gasps sounding as they looked upon the Hornford Market. In the center of the square was a gleaming spear of shimmering white crystal shot through with veins of purple nearly a hundred feet tall, a blade-like beauty of a magic artifact that Lance would have never expected to see here in a town like Hornford. Surrounding the Peacekeeper was a wide sward of striped and colorful tents brimming with banners and crowded with a mighty throng of people and creatures of all kinds. Humans from Altea, the Hundred Isles, Arusia and Balmera butted up against mountain giants with mottled green-gray skin, golden-skinned Nymans from the Scarlet Expanse, electric blue shade-dancers wrapped in cloaks of stone gray wool, three-eyed Trisighters from the Garnet Coast and many, many more. There were tables laden with heady spices and polished gemstones, curving blades of a thousand lengths and varieties, bottles of smoke-wine and essence of midnight, barrels of salted meats and leafy green vegetables. Cages full of flame-feathered phoenixes and stripe-furred alphyns were cluttered cheek by jowl with tanks of brackish water holding mud-scaled murklings and rustling wicker baskets full of fat orange fur-slugs which purred and mewled like kittens. Balls of flame darted and danced in the air as they wandered in and all around them, the trade-speak of a dozen different nations flew by so fast that it all became a blur. Lance had never seen such a vast and colorful oddity as this market in such a bland and boring town before.

"Well, this is certainly different," he muttered as he passed a couple of merchants wheeling away a covered cage labeled WARNING: THIS BANDERSNATCH IS EXTRA FRUMIOUS, BE CAREFUL WHEN APPROACHING. Something inside thrashed about and made warbling noises, which would have startled Lance more if he hadn't been nearly roasted alive by a hell-wyrm the night before. "I take it all these merchants come here because of that Peacekeeper thingy?"

"Yep," Pidge said simply, fingers waving over a tantalizing table brimming with fresh-baked treats, some of them made with Altean peanuts, Pidge's favorite. "The notes say that the Peacekeeper suppresses violent tendencies for miles around, hence why so many different merchants come here to trade, free of worry and strife. Anyone who does try anything nasty usually gets a blinding headache unless its in self-defense or in defense of others."

"Well, whatever the case may be, I just know that, cool market aside, I think I'm done with the tour and ready for food, a bath and some sleepy time," Lance said, eagerly rubbing his hands together. "Who's with me?"

Hunk jumped up and down going "Ooh, ooh, me!" Keith nodded, turning his face away as if he didn't really care yet Lance had noticed the way his mostly-hidden ears twitched at the sound of all three of those things. Much as Keith may have played at being the stoic tough-as-nails demon he was clearly a creature of comfort. Surely all of those things were quite tempting to such a being after several days of rapid movement and harried, hurried on-the-road living.

"I should get the charging crystals for the Bayards first," Pidge muttered, tossing a coin to the baked goods merchant and snagging a small basket of peanut cookies. "You three go ahead, I'll join you later."

The two young men and one demon boy of unknown age-surely he was around their age, Lance wondered, right?-wandered away from the crowded cluster of merchants, eager to have a day of rest, possibly the last they'd see until after rescuing Shiro and Matt. At the end of the nearest street, they found a white-washed, three story inn and tavern with lazy curls of smoke drifting out of its chimney, practically straight out of a postcard. The smell of fried food and the sound of laughing, chattering people greeted them as soon as they entered and Lance practically cried at the sight. Once this quest was done, he vowed never to leave people and civilization again for as long as he lived, if he could help it.

The three of them grabbed a table near the back, Hunk and Lance laughing and joking as they waited for their food and drink, Keith slumping in his seat against the wall and avoiding the gaze of anyone who might be scared by his eyes, which usually remained dark but glinted that bright demon yellow every now and again. At one point, as Lance was talking, he felt Keith's foot slide across his own and Lance shut up immediately, trembling slightly at the touch. Hunk didn't seem to notice, though, as he kept on with his stories of the academy where he trained to be a knight. Keith's foot went higher and higher, his booted foot now rubbing up against the side of Lance's leg, the pressure quite prominent through the fabric of his tight gray breeches. A moment later, the tavern maid arrived with their orders and the foot was swiftly removed, allowing Lance to breathe again. He side-eyed Keith, who was pretending not to notice how much he had startled and aroused his enchanter.

"Oh my gods, this is divinely delicious," Hunk mumbled, devouring fried bread and slurping up a thick, creamy fish stew seasoned with salt and pepper and smelling of heaven. "You've got to try it!"

"Will do." Lance started sipping at the stew then quickly began devouring it as well, burnt tongue be damned. Keith poked and prodded at the dish of steamed river mussels they'd brought him-Lance had no idea what else he might enjoy that they served here-and eventually began to strip the shells away from the mussel meat and eat them, his nod and munching noises suggesting the shells were at least to his liking. Lance didn't like to see good shellfish go to waste so he snagged the mussels and slurped them down as well. Keith finished eating first and without any fan fare, abruptly departed the table.

"Hey there, Demon Boy!" Lance called back, wincing as he earned one or two curious looks from the locals. Right, they didn't want anyone knowing there was a demon in their midst. "Um, Keith, that is...where do you think you're going? We haven't even gotten our room for the day yet!"

"Out," Keith said with a shrug. "To do things. I'll be able to find you-and the signature of our landing area, don't worry. I just need to stretch my legs a bit." Keith's eyes looked down to where his foot had been fondling Lance's thighs a moment later, his smirking gaze suggesting that he wanted to stretch Lance's legs as well, preferably apart. Lance pushed the thought of him and Keith fucking aside-gods, he couldn't wait to get back to the city and find someone to canoodle with for a short bit of fun and stress relief, the tension between them was really getting to him and Lance couldn't give into that temptation. Not with a demon, not with Keith, whatever would the priests say? Or anyone of House McClain, if they ever found out? No, that was but a simple fantasy, a foolish folly.

As soon as the meal was done, they jangled some coin in the innkeeper's face, gained themselves a room and free use of the bath-house, and Hunk and Lance parted ways-Hunk for a good, long nap, Lance to the bath-house for a good, long soak. No one else was using the long, low-roofed structure as far as he could tell, so Lance quickly stripped off everything in the changing room without using the stall, setting down his clothes and belongings into a wooden chest he kept locked with a simple spell, and groaned happily as he settled into the round pool of heated, bubbling water, his tense, sore muscles filled with relief as he was engulfed by the soothing bath, his bare brown bottom feeling soft and warm against the padded bench against the pool's rim. After all the rugged rubbish they'd been through in the Altean and Arusian wildernesses, he needed and deserved this so very, very much. Lance rested his head back against the stone rim and shut his eyes, enjoying what might be the last bath he had for ages.

A few moments later, the doors to the bath-house shuddered open and Lance casually lifted an eyelid, checking to see if it was tavern staff cleaning or another guest coming to bathe alongside him. Lance didn't have a towel draped around him under the water but he didn't care, he'd been naked in front of enough people over the course of his life, lovers and fellow student mages alike. The quick, clipped footfalls he heard against the bath-house floor were vaguely familiar, though, and Lance decided to fully open his eyes to see who had joined him. His eyes then widened dramatically as for the second time in his life he was greeted with the sight of fully frontally naked Keith sliding in the water next to him, his red tail flickering wildly, sweat and steam from the bath beading along his pale skin, his iron nipple rings bouncing slightly as he walked, his exposed cock huge despite its recumbent state beneath a small, neatly trimmed thatch of black pubic hair.

"K-Keith!" Lance shouted, his voice again making an annoyingly embarrassing squeak. Though the bubbling surface of the heated bath water mostly covered Lance, he still threw his hands to his crotch, quite aware of the building pressure of arousal growing down there in his own groin. Try as he might, he simply could not deny how good-looking the demon-boy was, how much he wanted him despite all the voices in his mind shouting "No! Bad Lance! No demon sexy-times for you!"

"Lance," Keith said with a nod and a wolfish grin. "Thought I might find you in here. Turns out that, apart from that market, there really isn't anything interesting here in Hornford. All the nice shiny things you humans have in your dimension and yet you strive to maintain order and dullness in so many places. How incredibly sad." Keith rolled his neck about and stretched out his arms as he sat down in the pool, groaning in delight as the heat he loved so much suffused him. He tilted his head back and breathed in the steam. "Of course, I figured, there's at least one interesting thing here in this town, right here in this bath-tub. Did you like the little leg-rubbing I gave you back in there?"

"Keith, I, I...Why are you pursuing me like this, teasing me and all? Do, do you really want the two of us to-?"

"Why not, Lance? You seem to desire me, judging by your looks and your words, to the point that others notice it almost all the time." Keith sat his head up straight again, his burning black eyes looking directly into Lance's own. "And we demons do tend to be drawn to those who summon us in many ways, sex being one of them..."

"I, I, I..." Lance stammered. Keith's words suddenly truly rammed home into Lance's thoughts. "Wait, does that mean you and Shiro-"

"Shhh," Keith said, putting a finger to his lips with one hand, crooking a finger in a come-hither gesture with the other. "Don't bother about me and Shiro, you'll find out more, soon enough. Why don't you come over here, Lance? We have a few moments together, no reason we can't...enjoy the other's company for a short while." Keith stood up out of the bath, runnels of water dripping all over him, his huge cock now suddenly quite thick and erect and throbbing. He began stroking it slowly, his cock almost bouncing as his thumb repeatedly rubbed across the head. "That mouth of yours doesn't seem to be working well for words at the moment, so why not use it for something else instead? If you so wish, you can use that nice big mouth of yours and pleasure me. I promise, I will gladly return the favor."

"I, I, I," Lance stammered again, unsure what he wanted to get up to just then. His own cock was gladly agreeing with this proposition, his hardened head rubbing and bumping up vigorously against the palm of his hand, his shaft thick and rigid in his tight grip. Lance stood up, hissing at the chill that touched his bare skin, the bath-water rolling off of his skin as it pebbled with goosebumps, and he trembled as he made his way over, the desire coursing through his system over-riding all the warning bells ringing in his head. Gods, he wanted this so very, very much. "I, um, well, Keith, I think I-"

Whatever it was that Lance thought, he wasn't thinking it any longer a split-second later as the loud-rumbling sound of a mighty, massive explosion ripped about from outside, shaking the bathhouse walls, sending waves of hot water spilling and sloshing over the stone rim, nearly causing the two young men to stumble and fall flat on their faces and their erections. Lance and Keith's looks switched from lustful and longing to expressions of confusion and horror quick as lightning.

"Whatever the fuck that was, it wasn't good," Lance said.

"Agreed," Keith replied, serious and stoic once more, leaping out of the bath-water and dashing for the changing room with his tail bobbing along behind him, water dripping from the fine, firm ass Lance had been so ready to pound only seconds before. "Come on, we should check it out! It could be the spy. Or something else trying to kill us."

Lance likewise left the heated bath and swore at the timing of the unexpected explosion-why did bad things always have to happen to him? Seriously, an explosion had to go off right when he and a seriously hot demon were about to fuck each other's brains out? When would he get another chance to do that?

Judging by the look Keith gave him as he quickly dried off and shrugged his clothes back on, another chance might come along sooner than he thought. As long as they survived whatever new and deadly danger lay outside the bath-house doors...

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, that's Chapter Four done for now! Sorry for the little tease of smut at the end and the cliffhanger, I promise it will happen eventually for those looking forward to it. Chapter 5 will hopefully be up in a couple days so thanks to any and all readers who stick around, especially those who leave wonderful comments and kudos, you're all great! (Sorry if I keep repeating that, I'm just so pleased to have an awesome readership here on ao3.) :)


	5. Flesh and Steel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone and thanks so much for continuing to read this fic and for being patient while I deal with stupid computer repair problems yet again this month, sigh. Before I head to the fic, however, here's some lovely fan art sketches that a blogger on tumblr named annetteloli made for this fic, featuring Lance, Demon Keith, Pidge, the winged lions and the hell-wyrm-here's the link, somewhat NSFW-http://anetteloli.tumblr.com/post/150231854308/darklord99blog-darklord99blog-anetteloli
> 
> Hope everyone likes the fan sketch and gives them a like and maybe even a reblog if you happen to be on tumblr (I am as well, sorry for shameless self-promotion, just check out @darklord99blog.)
> 
> Anyway, thanks so very much for reading, I hope to have more up in the next couple days as an attempt to make up for the dearth of story during the lack of laptop. Thanks as always for reading, enjoying, commenting, kudos and now for fan art, too, you readers are amazing :)

Lance swore as he dashed out of the bathhouse and into the streets of Hornford, struggling to slide into his shirt and wipe wet strands of hair out of his eyes at the same time. Whatever it was that exploded, it had cost him spontaneous sexy-times with an infuriatingly hot demon as well as threatened the lives of the annoyingly peaceful village, and Lance did not care for anything that could do both at once at the same time.

"Come on, Enchanter Boy, the sound of the explosion came from this way," Keith called ahead of him as he turned a cobbled corner, fortunately having shrugged his breeches, boots and coat back on before running out, though not his shirt. Given how casual he was about nakedness and how determined the demon-boy was to embarrass and entice Lance with the sight of his tantalizingly toned body, Lance was surprised Keith had donned even that much. Oh well, at least he still let his fine abs, still shining with the moisture of the damp, dense bathhouse air, show for all the world-and especially Lance-to see, though he had no idea what the villagers would make of those nipple rings...

"Lance! LANCE!" Hunk's voice cried out from the growing cluster of concerned citizens milling about the streets, many running away from the explosion, quite a few running towards it as Lance was. The big bulky knight ran towards Lance as fast as he could-pretty fast, given his training-and he laughed and grabbed Lance forward for a bone-cracking hug. "Oh, thank the gods, wasn't sure if you'd be all right! I was just falling asleep in the room and then I heard this incredible noise and I was so worried you might be involved and hurt, you have no idea-"

"I'm fine, Hunk," Lance wheezed as he was pressed against the cold metal of Hunk's breastplate, his face surely contorted into a mask of amusing agony, "or, at least, I will be if you let me go. Please. Ow."

"Oh, right, haha, sorry. Forgot how much of a toothpick you were there for a sec." Hunk dropped Lance to the ground, bringing a world full of air back into the realms of possibilities that Lance could encounter. "Is Keith with you? Or Pidge? Have either of them found you? You don't think they might be involved with that explosion, do you? Also, why does your hair smell like, like, um, is that strawberries?"

"Keith's fine, I think, he ran up ahead. Don't know about Pidge yet. And it's a special shampoo-and-soap combo from the bathhouse, by the way," Lance said with a scowl as he picked himself up and began pacing back to the marketplace, where the calamity seemed to have occurred, despite the presence of the Peacekeeper. "I happen to like the smell of strawberries, thank you. Better than whatever musk that is you knights of the Royal Guard use."

"Nothing wrong with the Just For Knights products," Hunk mumbled meekly as he paced beside Lance, fiddling about with his swordbelt while in search of a potentially-needed weapon. "Ah, shit, I forgot my sword back at the inn..."

"Seriously? Now, of all times?!" Hunk laughed nervously as Lance gave him his best I-can't-believe-it glare. He'd practiced that glare for hours once, one of many excuses for him to get a good look at himself in the mirror. "Did you bring any weapons with you?!"

"I still have a spork from lunch!" Hunk said, his face split by a massive, toothy grin. The young knight held aloft the spork as proof. "Can you believe they had sporks of all things out here in Hornford? The Arusians are far more civilized than people back at court give them credit for!"

"I'm sure you and Princess Allura can discuss the level of civilization as measured by kitchen cutlery another time, Hunk," Lance sighed. "Right now, though, we have to deal with whatever's threatening the town, if anything. Someone could have just let loose a really huge fart for all we know." Just in case there was danger afoot, however, he rubbed at his medallion-which he'd worn even in the bath, it hadn't left his side since the day he had sworn himself as Shiro's apprentice-and prepared himself to release a number of Ice Beams and Glacial Wind spells should he need them. He had no idea what he was up against, but he was strongest in Water and Wind magics, best to serve any nasty monsters or menacing spies the greatest spells in his arsenal. As they passed a nearby weapon shop, Hunk snatched a fine-looking broadsword from a table draped beneath a blue velvet display cloth, tossing a bag of coins at the bewildered shopkeeper, clearly thinking along the same lines as Lance. Pidge had the Bayards and the charging crystals, so they had to use whatever was upon them to quell the impending doom, a doom that strangely wasn't as bothersome as he'd expected it to be. Lance just couldn't believe how calm and cool he felt right then, how his heart was only pounding a little faster than before. Between the hell-wyrm and Keith's antics and the fact that there would be far worse danger awaiting them on the road to Shiro's rescue, he guessed he was just growing used to the mortal peril inherent in such a quest. Either that, or he was too terrified and stupid to realize just how doomed and damned he might be right then.

The marketplace soon came into view and Lance was blown away by the chaos that had engulfed the once incredibly peaceful center of trade. The striped tents were torn and in tatters upon the ground, the caged creatures out of a dozen bestiaries had flown and fled in a flurry of fur and feathers, merchants and citizens were screaming as blasts of sizzling green and purple fire sliced and shot through the air from an unknown source hidden behind a haze of heat and smoke. The ground was riddled with pockmarks and cracks, tongues of fire and pillars of noxious smoke snaked forth into the hot, thick air, and Lance nearly felt himself go sick as he saw a couple of bodies lying still upon the ground beneath wreckage and rubble, possibly dead, certainly badly wounded at the least. No time to help them, though, only time to stop whatever it was that was attacking them.

"Lance! Hunk!" Pidge cried from atop the smoking ruins of what had once been the wheeled cage containing the extra-frumious bandersnatch. Lance didn't envy anyone who came across the strange creature as it ran amok, unless of course they had a vorpal sword. Unlikely in this day and age, though. Oh well, at least the mome raths hadn't outgabe...

"Pidge! What the hell is going on? Is this a side-quest, we really don't need a side-quest right now! And have you seen Keith? Is he out there fighting whatever it is blowing everything up to kingdom come?!"

"We've got robots," Pidge said, a gleeful gleam in their eyes as they thumbed through the pages of their favorite thick, fat tome of magic. "A small army of them, Advanced Armored Automatons. Looks like Galra design to me. They probably wanted to test if mechanical beings would be left untouched by the Peacekeeper's violence-suppression waves. Seems they were right. Great way to start a war, too." Pidge pushed their giant spectacles back up their nose, looked Lance up and down and grinned wickedly. "Worried for Keith, are we? Well, I saw him run by all shirtless and scowling a moment ago with his tail smacking people in the face and that mullet-mane of his all wet and wild, just like your hair, Lance. Are you really worried about our resident demon or is someone simply missing their favorite bath toy?"

"Pidge!" Lance squeaked. "Now is not the time!"

"I know, I know, just can't resist a chance to needle you a bit, Lance, honestly, you make it too easy." Pidge cackled and jumped down from the crumpled cage, bulky green-and-white robes billowing as they landed. "Look, I got the charging crystals all jacked into the Bayards, though mine isn't working yet 'cause Rover just had to chew on it for a moment." Nearby, the hovering metallic pyramid familiar beeped in a way that suggested shame as Pidge gave it a disdainful glare. "Here, you two take your Bayards and take out the robots as best as you can, I'll try to find the proper command spell to take as many out as once as possible." 

Lance and Hunk both nodded, grabbed the Bayards as Pidge tossed them, and charged into the clouds of smoke and ash, shouting at the top of their lungs cause, well, wasn't that what you were supposed to do when you charged into battle? Lance gripped the handle of his blue-and-white Bayard and grinned happily as it's metal-and-crystal body transmuted into a weapon more to his liking-a shockstaff, capable of shooting great blasts of energy from a long way away and channeling his magic into close-up energy attacks. Hunk's Bayard likewise transformed into a weapon suited to his style of fighting, a massive two-handed sword with a golden pommel set with blood-red gemstones, the blade itself wreathed in liquidy light blue flame. Through the fire and the wreckage they charged, spinning and slashing their weapons about as the silvery sheen of the flexi-steel frames of Galra robot soldiers came into view. Blast after blast of colorful fire zinged and swooped past their head, crackling noises sizzling in Lance's ears as he moved forward, and for a split second, all of Shiro's training, all of his time spent watching the Royal Guards practicing maneuvers and battle drills in the castle courtyard, all those memories just went straight out of Lance's mind and into the ether, leaving him there an almost quivering wreck. Metal hands tipped in jagged steel knife-tips reached out of the smoke and reached for his face and for a second, Lance thought he would die right then and there.

A sickening crunch sounded in Lance's ears a second later as Keith, coming seemingly out of nowhere, launched himself into the air and crashed his booted feet into the robot's shiny metal head, whipping his tail about so it snatched the automaton's arm straight out of its socket and dashed it against the cobbles. Lance returned to his senses, grinning as the demon went berserk and let loose his claws and his fury upon a dozen robots at once, impossibly looking both frightening and sexy at the same time as he became a whirlwind of destruction amid the dozens of invading robots. Lance ran into the fray alongside him, letting loose bolts of white lightning and bursts of searing blue fire from his shockstaff, slightly miffed that Keith had saved him once more but happy that they were getting to fight side by side, that they could actually be a team. To the right of Lance, he could make out Hunk going into full-on bloodlusting berserker mode, smashing into the robots as if they were nothing more than toy soldiers, whacking them on the head, skewering their armored torsos as if they were barely more than tin foil, acting as if he were a one-man army and nothing in the world would be able to stop him. Hunk's nature was usually so genial, so kind and caring, that Lance often forgot he was suppsoed to be one of the deadliest knights in Allura's army. Now that Lance had seen him in battle, he didn't think he'd ever be able to forget that again.

"I've got the command spell!" Pidge cried as they darted into the middle of the thunderous tumult of man versus robot. Pidge raised their first high, medallion clutched tightly in their tiny fingers, and began to recite some summoning language that Lance had never bothered to learn-his interest in magic had nothing to do with the mechanical, only the elements and the supernatural. Thin rays of golden light buzzed and sizzled on the tips of Pidge's fingers, a radiant arc that took only a second to erupt outward and worm their way into the operating systems of each and every war-droid in the square. Silence and stillness ruled the mangled marketplace for a few minutes. Then, like the proverbial flies, the robots dropped to the ground one by one, a continuous clank of metal that seemed to go on forever. Eventually, not a single one was left standing.

As the smoke cleared and the robots stopped letting loose their wave of destruction on the town, some of the citizens came crawling out of their hiding spaces, whispers and mutters rising as they pointed to not just the destruction, not just to their unexpected saviors, but to the shirtless, red-tailed demon boy standing atop a pile of decapitated robots, his Bayard having turned into a long, thin blade enameled in scarlet and white, the blackish-blue crystalline oil of the Galra war-droids dripping from the scarlet steel like blood. Keith's eyes had been blazing a bright demon yellow the whole time and were only just now beginning to dim back into the burning black Lance was so used to, so turned on by. Keith looked at all the staring faces, his own turned pale from embarrassment at being revealed for what he truly was, and Lance knew that, much as he may have wanted to stay for a hero's feast or to simply help the townsfolk, they would have to leave. Word would get out soon enough of a destructive demon in the land and if there was a spy following them, well, that would lead him or her straight to their location in no time flat.

"We should go," Lance whispered to Pidge, who was busy kicking at one of the ruined droids and scrounging for spare parts for Rover. Pidge frowned, took one look at the frightened villagers, one look at Keith's strained and startled expression, then nodded their assent.

"Hunk," Lance said, trying to stop his burly friend from hacking apart the robots even further. "Seriously, Hunk, they're dead. You can chop something to bits another time. Here, we need to get going."

"Huh? Oh, right, yeah. Sorry. Kinda got carried away."

"So I can tell." Lance headed over to Keith, who still stood atop the pile of robots as if he were frozen to the spot by all those stares, and held out a hand to the demon he had summoned only a short time ago and yet was already feeling closer to. "Here, Keith, we need to go. Now."

Keith licked his lips, his bare chest rising and falling heavily as he was still feeling the throes of battle run hot through his body, and he finally nodded as his eyes met Lance's. "Ok, Enchanter Boy, let's get out of here."

They grabbed each others' hands, their fingers trembling from the warm touch of flesh after those several endless minutes of gripping their weapons tight, and pulled one another away from the violence that had split apart the peaceful town, back to the hidden winged lions, back to the quest, back to their long and miserable flight with no happy end yet in sight, hoping that they'd be able to make it through everything still in one piece, still together.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, that was just a short action scene of a chapter for now, more smut and silliness are being reserved for later chapters, hope you all liked it! I have more planned for the next couple of days, so hopefully my computer will behave so more fic can come your way soon! Thanks again for reading and kudos/comments, hope you're all enjoying the story so far :)


	6. At The Temple of the Sloth Monks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! As per usual, I want to give my thanks to everyone who's been following this fic, enjoying it, giving kudos and comments and praise and generally making me feel better during what has been a bit of a shitty week for me in real life (short version of the story-bills, work stress, computer troubles, feeling weary as hell.) Hope you all enjoy this next entry in the fantasy AU as Keith, Lance, Pidge and Hunk make their way towards the Crystal Blight of Quiznak and towards the Galra capital to rescue Shiro. What fresh hell awaits our heroes in this part of the quest? And will Lance and Keith be able to return to their interrupted sexy demon fun-times any time soon? Keep reading and find out! :)

Once the questing party left the town of Hornford on the backs of their barely-rested winged lions, the quest turned far more quiet and peaceful than it had in several days. At least, this was the case for a little while...

The dazzling purple fire of the space between worlds propelled them forward throughout the hinterlands of Balmera on three separate occasions before giving out, bringing the riders of the royal lions to a dense wilderness of towering trees, a lush green expanse that stretched as far as the eye could see. Lance already felt himself easier and more carefree than he had in a while as they flew down beneath the thick emerald canopy of the forest, the air warm and wet and smelling of sweet flowers and rich black earth even several hundred feet up. He'd grown up mostly in the city, save for the occasional month spent out on the McClain estates by the southern seas, so such a natural scent coupled with a verdant view of paradise was both alien and yet welcoming to him as he and his blue-furred lion darted down to the wide, slow river frothing at the sprawling feet of the great gray-trunked trees.

"This is the Forest of the Megatheri!" Pidge called out from the back of their green lion as they soared through thick webs of ropy green vines, a wide beaming smile on their face. "I've been here before with my father and...and my brother..." Pidge's cheerful voice faltered for a second before returning to its normal tone of excitement. "We should be okay to rest here for a day, at the least. The Balmerans don't bother the Giant Sloth people and no one else would dare try to invade the forests, not if they don't want every tree in sight attacking them. Likely the safest place on this entire journey, especially 'cause I've met the High Monk."

"Safe, is it?" Lance grumbled as he yanked and grabbed at a random snake-flower-bug thing that had landed atop his head and was busy trying to stick its long blue forked tongue into his ear. "You-urgh, get off of me, you fucking beastie!-sure about that, Pidge?"

"Not sure any place is safe with you around, buddy," Hunk chuckled as his lion, a grumpy old thing with streaks of gray running through its wild yellow mane, flapped its heavy wings and drew itself closer to Lance's side, thrusting out a dagger to stab at the weird creature attacking Lance's head, flicking it aside into the wild woods. "After this quest, you might want to stick to the Grand Lion Castle, much safer there."

"Nah, nowhere's safe for Lance, he'd probably trip down the stairs 'cause he'd be too busy staring slack-jawed at some pretty person passing by," Pidge said, stifling a smirk. "I know, I know, Lance, sorry, I'll stop it, I promise, you don't go after me for being obsessed over robots or anything, I shouldn't go after you for ogling every pretty boy and girl that catches your fancy all the time, it's just fun to get you to make those outraged faces of yours."

"Damn straight you shouldn't," Lance sighed, wincing as yet another one of the snake-flower-bug things launched itself from a thick branch draped in a heavy curtain of flower-studded moss and made its way for his face. He flicked an Ice Beam at the creature and let loose a wild, whoop of a laugh at it fell to the turgid waters below, trapped in a frosted chunk of glittering blue-white. "You keep it up, Pidge, I'll have to think of some jokes relating to can openers and tin cans and other things involving robots. Um, speaking of which, where are all those parts you took with you? Thought you had a huge sack of them for study so the Royal Engineers back home could get a look at them."

"Eh, they were kind of worthless, actually, after all the damage Hunk did to them. Keith was hungry-speaking of your latest pretty boy-and so I let him have the bunch for some snacking. Wish I could eat metal, I'm getting sick of salted beef."

Lance frowned and looked behind at the flame-colored red lion darting and diving through the woods right behind him, its scarlet mane rippling so much and so fast it really did look like it was wreathed in fire. Keith was indeed gnawing and noshing on a long, thin limb of scrap metal and steel, tearing away the metallic carapace and swallowing it the way one might gobble down the crispy skin of a fried chicken breast. At first, Lance thought Keith's expression was solely fixated on his food, that he had been quiet this whole trip simply because he was trying to regain a bit of energy spent from his berserker attack on the Galra war-droids. Then, Keith's smoldering black eyes flicked up to meet Lance's gaze for a second and he realized that this wasn't his usual aloof self, disdainful of any human company that wasn't for warmth or sex. Something was bothering the demon-boy and Lance had a pretty good idea what it was.

"Up ahead!" Pidge cried happily. "The Temple of the Megatheri! Our shelter for the night, if the High Monk allows it!" The lions flew forward faster than they had in a while, desperate to escape the constant bolting into wormholes and get a good night's rest for a change, and Keith's lion pulled up beside Lance's, the demon's peculiar meal of charred and shattered robot arm done for now. Keith's thick black hair and tufted purple demon ears rippled in the wind, his face determined and focused on the giant monolith of brown stone and vine-wreathed pillars looming up ahead, and Lance found himself for once wishing the demon boy would give him a sullen pout or a sexy smirk. But no, all he did was stare straight ahead as if he was trying to pretend the rest of the world didn't exist.

A faint mist of rain began to cascade upon them from the dense green canopy overhead, delighting Lance as he and his winged lion glided to a halt on a jagged outcropping of rock at the temple's edge. Water was his favorite element after all, be it rain or snow or the rippling blue-green waves of the ocean beneath Castle McClain. Staring at Keith as he dismounted from his lion, still shirtless and covered in scratches, his coat and clothes all a tatter from the battle, he did remember that fire was just as good an element and that perhaps he should pay it a bit more attention. Lance jumped down from his lion, which plopped into a furry blue pile of fur and limbs and began to snore almost instantly, and walked towards the demon he had summonsed several nights back, determined to make sure he was ok, wondering what he was thinking, what he was feeling, what was really between him and Shiro.

"Lance!" Pidge hissed from his side a second later. "The High Monk and his functionaries are approaching! Make a bow of deference! Now!"

"W-what?" Lance said, startled. Keith turned at the sound of his voice and though Pidge hadn't talked to the demon, he immediately dropped to his knees, his thin red tail likewise coiling in a sign of deference. Three massive man-sized sloth people covered in shaggy brown-grey fur and cloaks woven of silken leaves and colorfully striped flowers approached their party and Lance found himself the last one standing, surprised that they would receive a greeting when they hadn't sent word of their arrival ahead of time. He dropped to the ground quickly, very much aware of how much offense he could give for not following proper protocol (he had ruined a few diplomatic functions in his day, after all, his grandmother would never let him forget that incident with the shrimp cocktail, the umbrella stand and the Balmeran ambassador's wife's dress.) The sloths mumbled a few wheezy-sounding words at a glacial pace and Pidge responded in kind. With a slow wave of their hand, the four Altean questers were allowed to rise once more.

"Probably should've let you know beforehand," Pidge explained, their voice slightly scratchy after all that sloth-speak, "but the High Monk is a seer capable of parting the veil of time and seeing all outcomes and patterns, hence why they knew we'd be arriving here at this exact time today. The High Monk says we have his blessing on our mission and that we can rest here for the night. While you three tend to your wounds from the fight back in Hornford, he and I will be conversing over what exact path we should take next."

"I've been to the Crystal Wastes with Shiro before," Keith spoke up suddenly, voice slightly stilted as he hadn't used it for almost the entire journey from Hornford to the Megatheri Forests. "If we keep up travelling in this direction, there is only one path we can take to get there. And it's not a good one. You know that, right?"

"I know," Pidge sighed, wiping at their spectacles and avoiding all of their gazes. "All the same, if the High Monk can find another path for us to take through the Balmeran hinterlands to the Crystal Wastes that doesn't require a week of flying around mountains that scratch the sky, then I want to find such a path. We'll know if that's the case later tonight."

"Wait wait wait!" Lance said, scratching at his chin and considering their words. "More deadly danger is coming up ahead? And you all neglected to tell me again? Are there going to be more creatures that try to eat and kill me? I knew I should have brought that book..."

"If you'd actually paid attention in Geography class you'd know where we're going by now and wouldn't need a reminder of the danger we're headed into," Pidge grumbled. "Has to be the hundredth time I've said something like that. How did you ever pass any of your apprenticeship tests?"

"I crammed like crazy the night before and promptly forgot it all later. Just like everyone else who isn't a nerd." Lance folded his arms against his chest and gave Pidge a very cross stare. "Besides, I'm here to learn magic, not pore over a bunch of maps that may or may not be of importance to a quest I have no intention of undertaking ever again." 

"Lance, if you've ever read a book featuring quests, you know that the maps are all important. That's why they put them at the front, preferably in full detail and with nice colorful inks and fanciful handwriting. All the best books have maps at the start, honestly, why doesn't everyone know that by now..." The High Monk and his fellow sloth-men grunted and gestured at Pidge to follow and Pidge gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Look, Lance, if you're so concerned about what's coming, go ask Keith, he probably knows more than I do. I'm going to go help the High Monk chart our future path while you, Keith and Hunk do whatever it is you do."

Lance turned around to do exactly that and, to his surprise and dismay, found Keith had already left their little group and headed on into the temple.

The next few hours should have been spent resting alongside his lion, chatting with Hunk about home, having a halfway decent meal and poring over his spellbooks for powerful magic that may be necessary to the road ahead. Lance spent them looking for Keith instead. He wandered the massive, dimly-lit halls for what felt like ages, occasionally admiring the giant sloth statues draped in thick green vines or the multi-faceted glowstone spheres dancing upon the vaulted ceilings high above. A few sloth monks would occasionally acknowledge his existence, one of them placing a flower-crown on his head, the others sometimes mumbling and pushing Lance aside when he tried to enter corridors and chambers that were apparently forbidden. After looking behind every reliquary and into every cloistered corner he could think of, Lance was almost ready to give up when he heard the splashing of water and a long, low guttural noise that sounded exactly like Keith's voice. Lance hurried down the dank, damp corridor ending at a pool of water beneath a warren of massive tree roots and stopped and stared as he saw Keith, naked once more, climb a massive knob of of greyish-brown rock and dive into dark surface of the glassy pool below.

Lance gave the demon a slow clap as he rose up back from the surface, ears and hair dripping wet and expression neutral, and wolf-whistled in an attempt to get Keith back into his usual mood. "Nice swan-dive there, Demon Boy, very nicely done. You know, for someone who claims to come from a cold wilderness and has a serious yearning for heat and fire, you sure do seem to love running about with your clothes off and getting into the water lately." 

Keith shrugged those fine shoulders of his, trickles of water dripping down his collarbone and heaving chest, beads of it settling on the iron ear piercings, nipple rings and shackle-like bracelets. He shook his tail about as he stepped out of the pool, his slenderly muscled and aggressively nude form still physically beautiful and mildly unnerving to Lance yet not filled with the same seductive motion he'd employed when trying to tease the enchanter of late. "What can I say, Lance, since you summoned me here to the human world, I've just been really attracted to water for some reason." Keith tried to make his voice sound attractive, tried to gain Lance's attention, but Lance could tell just how half-hearted it was. He was really, really bothered by the events of the other day, wasn't he? 

Lance sighed, sat down on a low stone bench by the water's edge, and gave Keith a look that he hoped was full of understanding and empathy, not just bewilderment and lust. "Look, Keith, I get why you're upset, no need to be coy with me. I knew what you were capable of back when we were in Hornford fighting those Galra war-droids. I'm not like those other people, conditioned to a life of peace and bliss. I know what violence looks like and I know that you used it to save me, to save others. Just because you're a demon doesn't make you a murderous monster." 

Keith seemed to bristle slightly at Lance's words as he stood there on the flagstones, wet and nude. "What makes you think I care about what those stupid humans feel about me? You really should keep your mouth shut more often, Lance, unless you're using it for magic or to pleasure someone. Clearly you don't know anything about what you prattle." 

The words stung somewhat but Lance was used to it; people told him off as if he were a witless child all the time, just because he focused his mind on action instead of study and memorizing random facts like Pidge and so many other enchanters. His concentration always wavered too much for that stuff-when he found something worth focusing on, like his devotion to magic, like his loyalty to Shiro, like his growing fondness for Keith, he gave it his full attention. "Listen, Keith, I saw the way the people were looking at you back there and I saw how terrified you were of them for a few seconds, as if you were like all the other monsters people summon from the Shadow Domains instead of someone who saved lives and stopped further destruction from happening. You don't have to hide how terrified you are from me, I summoned you here, I know what you're capable of-at least, I think I do. I don't think of you as a monster-or a simple object to lust after, by the way, in case you try any of that teasing on me again to wriggle out of your discomfort. I just think of you as, well, Keith."

"Hmm.Only a few days and how well you profess to know me already," Keith laughed mirthlessly. He sighed, bent down, locked gazes with Lance for a moment, then leaned forward to give him an incredibly hungry, demanding kiss that nearly made Lance jump out of his boots. Cold, fat drops of water ran down from Keith's face onto Lance's and yet all he felt was a rush of heat flooding his face and body, an electric touch that demanded his full attention. Lance didn't want to let go, didn't want to stop the movement of needy lips, the darting of a probing tongue and its heavy iron piercing into the warmth of his mouth, the nibbling of slightly too sharp teeth at his tender flesh, the soft tufty tail tracing lines across the tiny hairs on the back of his neck as Keith gripped him tight with both hands, yet Lance pulled away after just a few seconds, taking deep breaths, amazed he could breathe at all after that. 

"K-Keith!" Lance snapped, slightly miffed. The demon boy pulled back with an amused grin on his face and a very erect cock hanging heavily between his legs, causing Lance to wonder whether he should avert his eyes or strip as well and join in the fun. "I, I told you not to do any teasing or anything-"

"That wasn't teasing just then," Keith said as he turned about, grabbing a fallen banner to rub off the condensation and then yanking his tattered clothes back on-Lance imagined the sloth-monks wouldn't appreciate a naked demon wandering their halls in search of his spare clothes back with their gear and the lions. "That was a thank you kiss, Lance, for not seeing me the way others did back there. I, I have never appreciated how you humans view my kind when you're capable of just as much terror and tyranny as mine have been known to commit. Shiro is one who sees me for who I am, I find it pleasant to know I have another like him by my side." Keith ran a hand down the side of his body, chuckling slightly as he stopped to fiddle about with one of his nipple rings and the fleshy nub that was being pierced by the slick iron circle, a small moan escaping both his lips and Lance's at the sight. "When we have a bit more privacy, Lance, well, perhaps I shall thank you like I intended back in the Hornford bathhouse." 

"P-privacy?" Lance looked up and a loud "eep!" escaped his recently-kissed lips as he saw at least half-a-dozen sloth monks looking down on them from a balcony overlooking the pool. "Oh gods, I hope we didn't just desecrate their temple or anything!"

"Not likely," Keith assured him as he shrugged on his bright red loincloth-which barely covered a thing-and then into his black breeches and boots. "We didn't get up to enough for any proper desecration to have occurred. Perhaps a bit of mild blasphemy. I'm sure we can apologize somehow and make up for it later, if they insist. For now, I'm hungry and tired and would really love to catch some sleep. Living in the human world is certainly draining." 

"On that, we can most definitely agree." Lance got up, pulling his coat tight against his body despite the humid air in order to best hide his raging boner, and followed the demon with a sort of odd gait to his walk until he was finally able to calm down. They chatted somewhat as they walked the many winding levels of the labyrinthine temple, Lance talking more of his family and his training as a mage, Keith discussing the impossibly bizarre landscape of the Shadow Domains-floating rocks overhead apparently let loose storms of glass and diamond amidst all the snow and ice, who knew?-and eventually, Lance found himself coming to find the demon as a bit more than just a sexy yet pestilential menace. Perhaps they would be able to bond as something more than just summoner and summoned, enchanter and demon, pursuer and pursued.

As they came back to the main chamber of the temple, Lance saw Pidge and the High Sloth Monk approach, Hunk in fast pursuit, and he smacked his forehead in irritation. He'd completely forgotten to ask Keith what they were about to encounter as soon as they left the Forests and the Temple. Well, guess he was about to find out..."

"Bad news, everyone," Pidge sighed as they held up a ball of colorful crystal wreathed in soft emerald-colored flame. "The High Monk here scoured the winds of time for any possible different approach we could take from here to continue the path to the Galra Garrison. Either we turn back and find an entirely different route like the Kerberos Path or we forge on ahead to the only pass that connects this side of the Balmera Confederation to the provinces bordering the Crystal Wastes."

"Okay," Lance said, waving his hand as if he expected his friend and fellow mage to say more instead of pausing for dramatic emphasis. "And this pass, what's so deadly about it? Please tell me so I can decide whether to run away screaming or to just cry like a little baby?"

"We'll have to walk through the Valley of the Mindbleeders," Pidge announced, a tone of dread finality to their voice. "A pass that few have ever survived and that none can maneuver around because of jagged mountains on either side and an anti-magic field left in place from a long-ago war. And we'll have to do it without a single telepath among us to protect us from the mindbleeders' assault. We might very well be screwed beyond belief."

Lance looked at Keith for confirmation, as the demon had been through this pass before. He merely shrugged, flashed a wicked grin full of those sharp teeth of his, and gave a hale and hearty laugh that was much more suitable to him than that melancholy moodiness from earlier. "Oh, we're not screwed at all, Pidge. I'll be able to help you all out, no problem. Looks to me like we're going to be in for some fun here soon, especially given that there's a town with a tavern on the other side as a reward for our hard work."

Keith looked right back at Lance and he nearly went weak in the knees at the sight. So he was going to be Keith's reward for getting them all through the pass, was he? Well, whatever got them through this quest, Lance was up for anything, especially if it was a reward for him as well. He grabbed Keith's hand, gladly surprising the demon for once, and said, "Mindbleeders? Pfft. A walk in the park. We'll be through there and out the other end in no time."

And hopefully, though Lance's lust-filled mind, the reward would be worth the wait.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, everyone, that's a wrap for Chapter 6! A bit shorter than I'd anticipated-what will now be Chapter 7 was originally the planned second half of this chapter but I'm running out of time to write for now and I felt like posting something so here it is. Hope that's enough to satiate my readers for now, glad you're all enjoying the read, thanks again for comments and kudos! :)


	7. Valley of the Mindbleeders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry this chapter's a little later than promised, the past weekend at work was brutal, didn't really feel like writing til now, urgh. Anyway, here's Chapter 7 of the story, hope you all enjoy it, thanks for being such great readers and for the kudos, comments, critiques and hits, they're all greatly appreciated! :)

Leaving the Temple of the Sloth Monks and the verdant beauty of the Forests of Megatheri behind was harder for Lance than he wanted to admit. At last, some place along their quest had been safe for a little while-no wildlife or robot armies trying to kill him whatsoever, just the cool crystalline sound of splashing water and the rich, pungent smells of earth and flower all around. Kindly sloth monks who offered delicious food and a warm place to sleep by the fire-with Keith's wiry demon body curled up against him for warmth, welcome and invited this time, no less, was a far better experience than the constant fear of being bitten or fried to death. Though Lance always tried to put on a show of bravado and though he had been the one to suggest this quest in the first place, he had to admit to himself in the dark corners of his mind that on this quest, he felt weak and helpless and so, so tired. Lance hated himself for the thought of wanting to abandon the quest, to abandon Shiro and turn home and yet, the thought persisted nonetheless.

"Almost there!" Pidge cried from up ahead, their green lion the leader of the flying formation for today. They had made the wormhole jump as close to the dangerous, doom-laden valley as possible, emerging over windswept rocks and the weathered ruins of a crumbling fortress, knowing full well that magic wouldn't work for some time around the valley, that they would need to keep their wits about them. Silence ruled over the party as a result, a creeping dread that made Lance's dark desires to abandon the mission even greater than they had been before. He had no idea what the mindbleeders could do, what they even looked like or what they were, apart from the legends of their usage in a great war long ago. Thousands upon thousands left as lifeless, mindless husks that eventually withered away to nothing in the wilderness, forsaken by gods and men alike.

Lance couldn't believe that he was bringing his friends into such a place, that his need for glory, his need to sate his starving ego by rescuing the lost and beloved Shiro Silverfist could drive him to such folly as to enter the valley. He should have listened to the elder mages, should have realized that this was all a fool's quest. Now he might not only lose his master but some of his only friends as well. He couldn't stop thinking about the impending danger and knew such thoughts might only make things worse so he tried his best to keep his mind still, to listen only to the beating of his heart, the huff of his own breath, the flapping of his lion's wings as they soared past the last of the fallen towers and came to a halt in a field of striped black-and-white grass wreathed in pearly gray mist. He would make it through this, he would.

"Nerves getting to you?" Keith's voice came from beside him, nearly causing Lance to shriek. He hadn't noticed how close the red lion and its demon rider, now clad in fresh and tatter-free black garb, had come towards him until the moment they landed. "I don't think I've ever seen you keep your mouth closed this long so far, Lance. You must be awfully tense."

"Well, not as tense as you'll feel after, after...well, not as tense as you are, that's for sure," Lance mumbled, his worried mind too clouded with fear and frustration to think of a good comeback. "You've been here before, right, Keith? Any way we'll be able to make it through all in one piece?"

"It'll be tricky," Keith said as he stroked his chin and considered the question, tail flickering like a whip through the field of tall and unusually colored grass. Black and white and red all over... "A small party is the best kind to travel through such a pass as it would take a mindbleeder a good while to sense such small amounts of neural energy, so we're already set on that front. When Shiro and I came here to collect some devilstone from the old abandoned mines, it was only with one other person and even then, we nearly ran into a whole cluster of them. The key to escaping their notice is to keep your mind clear of any thought but your urge to move on, your need to survive. Anything else will only entice them further, drive them wild with hunger." Keith made a kind of half-leering smirk at Lance-a flash of teeth, heavily hooded eyes glinting like obsidian. "Kind of like whenever you use your magic around me, I just can't help but be attracted to it."

"Save the flirting for later, demon boy," Lance said, chuckling despite his nerves. He couldn't believe he was the one giving such advice-normally he was the one who turned to flirting and joking when a situation made him uncomfortable or uncertain. Instead, of late, he'd merely stammered and blushed the whole time while Keith continued to burn a trail across his mind. When Lance next got the chance, he'd have to find some pretty maids or merchant's sons to give attention to-at the very least, he could see what kind of reaction Keith would have to such behavior. Just picturing the fuming face of his summoned demon prince in a fit of jealous rage was warming enough that Lance nearly felt better.

"C'mon, let's go see what that knight and robot-loving enchanter friend of yours are up to," Keith said with a sigh, grabbing his lion by the reins and lugging it forward, a scarlet knife cutting through the striped grass. "I should probably be the leader on this part of the mission-not just because I've been here before, but also because I'm the only one who can probably keep a calm head through all this."

"Pfft! You have a calm head?! Have you seen yourself in battle?!" Keith shot him a dirty look and Lance recoiled, wincing at his stupid mistake. Right, Keith was touchy about that, about the stares and his own disgust at the darker side of his nature, even if Lance didn't think him a monster due to his talent for violence. He decided to try for a jolly bantering tone again, his usual go-to when he messed up. "Um, I mean, lead on, O Wise and Powerful Keith..."

Keith's glare continued to be stony and his mouth remained shut and Lance felt his shoulders sag. Great, just when he'd been able to establish a bit of a rapport, an equal fascination with one another, now he had slightly ruined it because of his big fat mouth. Yet another reason he should have never embarked upon this quest.

A few minutes later, they came upon the green, yellow and riderless black lions, resting on their haunches and licking their massive hairy paws as they awaited the order to move forward. Pidge and Hunk were standing next to the green lion's head, a giant book clutched tightly in Pidge's skinny little arms, and Lance found himself frowning as he saw Hunk leaning over Pidge's shoulder, the two of them whispering back and forth. Lance had been friends with the two of them ever since he'd arrived at court, a fresh new apprentice in need of training, and he had only ever seen them conspire together in such a fashion when they were planning a prank or something serious was afoot.

"...don't have to worry, Pidge," Lance heard Hunk say in that soft, soothing voice of his, "we'll get Matt back safe and sound. He's too valuable a prisoner for the Galra to have done anything too terrible to him, I think." Pidge looked up and Lance could just picture the dirty look they must have given Hunk. "Ok, ok, they won't have done anything to him, I'm sure. And by the gods, if they have, WHAM! I'll stab each and every one of them who dared to hurt him and you like that."

"Thanks, Hunk," Pidge said, voice slightly trembling. "I wish I could just solve all my problems by stabbing them. Listen, don't let Lance know I was feeling worried, okay? I'm terrified we won't make it through here alive and that no one will be there to get my brother back. If Lance knew how much I was worrying, the guilt would eat away at him throughout the rest of the quest for having dragged me along. Better to just keep cracking jokes at his expense and keep him thinking about other stuff so he's none the wiser."

Lance nearly felt like shouting at Pidge for not confiding in him and instead crept up quietly in the sudden lapse in the conversation, not wanting his friends to know he'd overheard their conversation. Keith, who didn't know them well at all and didn't care as much about Pidge's problems, merely walked right up to them, yanked a stalk of grass out of the ground and started chewing it. "Hey," he said calmly between bites of grass, "we ready to go here or what?"

Pidge's face paled as they saw Lance and they turned their face back to Keith, trying to act nonchalant, as if they weren't in need of a friend to talk to. Lance was much the same way as Pidge-why be truthful with one another about your feelings when you could laugh it off instead?-and so he let it pass for now. Still, once they were out of danger, Lance would make sure he and Pidge talked about their fears. The quest would never succeed if they were avoiding one another. He'd want to talk to Hunk, too-surely even such a stalwart knight as the big-bellied guy, one who had nothing to do with this quest other than his connection to the friends and his orders from the Princess he served, could use some camaraderie and consoling.

"You've been here before, Keith," Pidge said simply to the demon, "so you're the leader now, for a little while. Please be sure to warn us before any nasty sort of danger might get us-we're not all as resilient as you demons seem to be."

"Damn straight you're not," Keith murmured, his eyes far-away as he looked out at what lay beyond the heavy curtain of mist. "I've been through some things you wouldn't believe. Keep close behind but not too close, our neural signatures need to be scattered just far apart enough that the mindbleeders don't find us. And try not to jump at any sudden sights or sounds, a spike of panic will be like candy to them."

"Gods, why did you and Shiro come here before in the first place?" Lance mumbled as he grabbed at the blue lion's reins and followed Keith through the curling banks of cool, thick fog, a feeling of pins and needles running through his legs as they climbed the hills of steep, stony soil beneath the endless sea of grass. "Why would anyone come here, for that matter?"

"Devilstone deposits are thicker here than anywhere else in the world," Hunk piped up, an eager grin spreading across his deep brown face, raising a hand as if he were a desperate student trying to gain their teacher's attention. "And devilstone's an incredibly rare and valuable gem that's used in all manner of potions and magic-charged weapons. A single crystal can amplify the frequency of thaumic emissions tenfold if embedded in a focusing medallion in the correct alignment. The two of you probably have a couple in the medallions hanging against your chest right now, actually." Lance and Pidge raised their eyebrows as they looked at Hunk, startled at the knight's knowledge. "What? You mages aren't the only ones who read all about that stuff, you know. Guard duty can get really boring some times, best to have a library book on hand. Always trying to broaden my mind, you know?"

"Hunk's correct," Keith said, his voice slightly clipped and curt. "Part of Shiro's job as Court Wizard involved the securing of rare resources of magic power from across your world and the other dimensions like the Shadow Domains. That's why he would summon other demons to help him out from time to time and that's why he'd summon me, to handle the jobs he couldn't take care of alone." That stupid sexy smirk of the demon prince's showed up on his pale face again as he looked back at Lance. "Of course, out of all the demons he summoned, I was Shiro's favorite. Surprised you didn't know about that, being his apprentice and all."

"There's a lot Shiro didn't tell me," Lance grudgingly admitted. Oh, how he had loved to brag and boast to his fellow apprentices about all the secrets he learned from his master, the renowned Court Wizard, youngest and most handsome man to ever hold the post, all a front to cover up how little he had actually seemed to learn, how invisible he had often almost seemed to the steel-armed wizard. Though part of the reason for his heading on his quest was for the simple glory its success would bring him, part of it was just so Shiro could truly consider him an equal as a mage. Damn, was he ever desperate for the man's attention, though not quite in the way he was for Keith's. Funny that, given how much he had wanted Keith to go away at first.

"So, Keith," Lance continued, "apart from this devilstone, what other rare and precious materials did you and Shiro go off collecting? What exactly was it that made you his favorite?"

Keith let loose a little laugh that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end. "Oh, wouldn't you like to know, Lance..."

"Yes, I would, that's why I asked." Lance frowned and stomped on faster to try and catch up with Keith, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Look, Keith, no need to act all upset towards me, I'm sorry about my little jibe back there, just please talk to me-"

"Shhh." Keith stopped walking so suddenly that Lance nearly crashed into him. He stopped himself just in time instead and realized that he and their two lions had reached the crest of the grassy hill, the mist around them beginning to part and reveal a mighty and majestic sight that was so beautiful that Lance nearly forgot his fears for a full minute.

On either side of them, engulfing the horizon as far as the eyes could see, there rose two sweeping, soaring clusters of jagged blue-gray mountain peaks, so high they were lost in the crown of clouds. Drifts and spills of snow and ice dusted and darted down crystalline crevasses, the exposed gemstone veins all awash in glittering shades of garnet, amethyst and pearl. Between the blue behemoths that scratched the sky was a narrow, snaking sliver of a valley, all tumbling slopes and finger-thin passes swallowed by a horde of blood-red brambly vines as thick as trees and an endless sea of deep black roses, their silky petals tossed upon the dagger-sharp winds blowing about at the root of the mountains. There was no sign of mindbleeders but if they all kept thinking and worrying about the mission at hand, they'd soon be a feast for the feared and fabled creatures.

"I know this won't be hard for you, Lance," Keith said in soft, stilted tones, "but try your very best not to think for the next couple of miles. You can do it." His voice lowered to an almost mocking whisper. "I believe in you."

"Shut up, Keith," Lance said, almost butting his head up against Keith's as he gave the demon prince one of his most intense scowls. "If we're supposed to clear our minds before entering this valley, you're not doing a very good job of being an inspiration to us all!"

"Oh, you consider me an inspiration, do you, Lance the Enchanter?" Keith's tufty red tail flicked around and rubbed its soft end all over Lance's face and lips, sending shivers across his skin. "I'm touched."

"Gods, Pidge is right, "mumbled Hunk as he came up to the hill's summit, hefting his recently-purchased sword over his broad and heavy-set shoulders, "you two really do need to get a room. There is a trading village on the other side of the pass, bound to be an inn we can stop at for the night-"

"Not helping, dude!" Lance snapped. He turned his angry, scrunched-up face to Keith, who shrugged and made an even bigger shit-eating grin than usual, sticking his tongue out far enough that the iron piercing bobbed a bit..

"What can I say, Lance? All the anger, fear, frustration and lust within you needs to be cleared away before we can progress any further, best to just get it all out of your system in one little burst."

"Oh yeah? And what about all your emotions like that? Can you just turn them off so easily?"

Keith turned away again, his shoulders stiffening, his tufted purple ears laying flat against his thick black hair. "Why yes, Lance, yes, I can. Pidge is just coming up the hill, so we should get going, don't want to be stuck here as it gets dark. If all goes well, we can be at that village by sunset and make another wormhole towards the Crystal Blight of Quiznak in the morning. Come on, let's go."

Lance very much wanted to drag out of Keith what had happened to him in those Shadow Domains of his, what his deal was precisely, but he couldn't risk any sort of pondering or questioning right now. He had to keep his mind flat, dim, unloaded with burning thoughts and desires. He clenched his fists into balls, closed his eyes, breathed deeply for a few minutes, then grabbed at his lion's reins, certain not to stare at any of his friends, in case any worries about their safety came to mind.

The path was a steep, sharp series of curves downhill, rocks and dust kicked up with every footfall, slivers of striped grass lashing at his legs as he proceeded downwards. Tempting thoughts of riding on the lion's back rose in the back of his mind and Lance shoved them away, desperate to keep his focus on surviving the valley thick with black roses and crimson thorns. The air was surprisingly warm, the fragrance of the roses strong and heady, the rippling wind cold caresses against his skin, a combination of senses that drove Lance to near-sleepiness. Lance knew he had a reputation for his wandering mind and eyes, his inability to keep to a task, and he didn't want to let his friends down at all, so he pressed forward despite the sinking ache in his bones, despite the many sensations nagging and pinching at him. 

The fact that his magic powers, the rock upon which he'd built much of his life, were rendered essentially useless by the anti-magic field projected by that ancient artifact hidden in the mountains didn't help any, either. Without magic, Lance was just another useless mouth, just another McClain who made the difficulty of matters of inheritance within the House that much more difficult. He was nothing without it, nothing. Memories of the grim, gray ocean-side castle of his childhood and the constant loneliness there began to plague and pester him and he batted the thoughts away as best as he could, wishing it wasn't so silent and still here, so eerily quiet.

"I'm, I'm scared," Lance heard Pidge whisper behind him as they led their lions past piles of rocks placed at the feet of the endless field of black roses-cairns to cover and commemorate the corpses of those killed in battle so long ago. Lance nodded in appreciation of Pidge's words, wishing the trail wasn't so narrow so he could place a hand upon his tiny bespectacled friend's shoulder. Gods, why was he feeling and thinking so much right then? He was supposed to be keeping a clear and empty mind, not letting his mind linger on things that made him uncomfortable.

"Me too, Pidge," Lance said at last, having to talk just to help himself concentrate, one hand clutched to his medallion despite its temporary uselessness, "me, too."

"Same here," Hunk muttered, gripping at both his sword and his bayard. "That's why I'm dual-wielding here. Not only do I look awesome with two weapons, I can take out two of those mindbleeders at once."

"What did I say about keeping quiet and clear of thought?" Keith hissed from up ahead as he trudged through the roses, swatting away at the thorny vines that wished to touch him as badly as Lance did. "You're going to draw them to us if you all keep that up! We can have a good chat and cry once we make it through!"

"Sorry," they collectively whispered, eyes darting everywhere to make sure no mindbleeders were coming through the field of roses, a swath of silken shadow running up and down the mountain walls on either side of the valley like crazy paving.

"It's ok," Keith sighed, his voice almost on the edge of a snarl. "I know how tricky it is for you humans to hold back your emotions and your thoughts. Why, I remember when Shiro and I were here-"

An explosion of black roses interrupted Keith's words and made them all fall back to the ground with yelps, the angry winged lions rearing in the air behind them, silvery claws glinting in the dim light of the valley. Rising from the eruption of roses was a triad of floating bluish-purple brains the size of horses, their hovering forms wreathed in a faint acid green light, ropy blue-white tentacles dangling from their throbbing, fleshy undersides in a way that reminded Lance of the blobs of seaweed that would wash upon the rocky shores beneath the southern tower of Castle McClain. He had never seen a picture of a mindbleeder before but given the fact that these were literal giant brains floating before him and threatening them with menacing tentacles, he kind of assumed that these were the legendary creatures they feared.

"Run!" Keith growled, scrambling to get off the ground, his eyes flashing from black to gold. The other three jumped back from their fallen positions as he extended his usually hidden claws. "They've got our mind-scent now, there's no stopping them, just run!"

Hunk and Pidge grabbed their lions by the reins and made for the roses and Lance was about to follow suit when he heard Keith cry behind him. He turned around and saw that, though Keith was quicker than the three of them combined, the mindbleeders had still gotten to the demon boy, wrapping tentacles around his iron-bound wrists, his torso, and around his neck. Keith squirmed and screamed as the creatures started dragging him back through the roses and Lance wished even harder for his magic to aid him now. He grabbed at his medallion and attempted to connect to any sort of thaumic force-undinic, salamandric, gnomic or sylphic-and found that they all failed him, just as Pidge had said they would. No Ice Beams or Lightning Knives to help him now.

"Hunk! Pidge! I need some help here! Now! They got Keith!"

His two friends stopped obeying Keith's orders and turned back immediately, faster even than before. Hunk lunged at the mindbleeders with all of his might, hacking away as if they were the Galra war-droids all over again, leaping back and forth as they snapped their tentacles at him and hardened the soft, squishy surface of their brain-like bodies. Pidge got on their knees next to Lance, took out a bronze-hilted dagger and began to cut away at the tentacles tying Keith down while Lance activated his bayard and smacked into the mindbleeders' underside with his shockstaff.

"Hnnng! Hnn!" Keith cried, his teeth clenched tight, his voice a babble of meaningless, pain-filled sounds. Sweat trickled down Lance's face and matted the brown bangs hanging in his eyes as he tried to think of anyway to free the demon-his demon-from the creature's clutches. Keith had saved Lance's life at least twice now, he had to return the favor somehow.

"Come on, Keith," Lance muttered as he continued whacking away at the mindbleeder, careful not to touch the flesh itself lest he fall into its feeding fingers as well. "You need to fight back. We have so much left to do. You want to see Shiro again, right? And your home of the Shadow Domains again, right?"

"And you and Lance are going to have such wild, nasty sex it'll be heard throughout the land," Pidge grunted as they managed to slice through one of the tentacles at last. Lance swore and Pidge shrugged. 'Sorry, have to cut the tension here somehow, you know I don't care about any of that. Besides, anything to keep Keith from succumbing to their feeding."

"Whatever," Lance mumbled. He smacked the mindbleeder for what had to be the tenth time in a row and at last it finally quivered like jelly and moved away about a foot, its coiling tendrils loosening slightly. Keith still struggled to move out of the slimy, glowing grip but he was able to talk again at least.

"It's...trying to...drain me," he managed to hiss, his voice low and guttural and wrought with pain, his lips formed into a trembling rictus. Panic flooded the shadowy depths of his eyes. "Taking...my memories...you need to connect with me...confuse it so it tastes bad and weird and I...won't lose myself..."

"You sure you want us doing that?" Lance said, biting his lips in nervousness. He knew he'd wanted to know more about Keith's past, but not like this, not when he was backed into a corner and fighting for his life.

"Hell yes, if it means...living." Pidge sliced through another tentacle and Keith was able to free an arm, using it to snatch Lance and Pidge's hands and placing them on the tentacle. "Here, overload the thought feed-aaaah! Now! It's the only way!"

Lance and Pidge both nodded, grabbed the half-sliced tentacle as it wrapped itself tighter around Keith and for a moment the whole world seemed to shudder and blur-

Lance blinked. He was no longer in a valley of roses but in a room very, very familiar-his old bedchambers in the Southern Tower of Castle McClain. Books of magic, old clothes and toys and dusty tapestries embroidered in cloth-of-gold carried the weight of so many years and all of it came back to Lance in a rush as he relived those memories. He remembered watching the House soldiers patrolling in the courtyard below and wishing he could fight like them, remembered the strong smells of garlic and herbs, fish and stew, cheese and bread wafting from the kitchens far below, remembered his parents' relief when it was discovered he had a talent for magic and great power besides, that their befuddled boy, their useless youngest son, wouldn't be a burden to the ancient noble house after all. Lance recalled those feelings of feebleness and devoted himself fully to the magic that was the only reason anyone seemed to find worth in him, promises of glory, honor and prestige filling him. Never had Lance been somewhere he felt such strong love and hate for at the same time as his ancestral home. Lance breathed deep and tried his best to remember the whole of his youth so strongly it would make the mindbleeders throw up from gorging.

A flicker of light and suddenly Lance could feel himself touching upon Pidge's memories as well. Unlike Lance, Pidge had never wanted to be a mage, though it was a talent they had appreciated nonetheless. Lance saw Pidge happily playing with the older brother they missed and the father and mother they admired beaming over them, saw Pidge be overawed for the first time by the sight of magic-powered automatons as a dozen freshly-minted metal men were presented in the family's great hall for inspection, saw Pidge actually attempt to deliberately fail the entrance exams for the Grand Order of Mages as they were so desperate to not be parted from their family and yet was accepted as a top student anyway. Being stuck inside Pidge's mind, so full of calculations and concerns, was strange enough, but nothing compared to drifting into Keith's memories.

The Shadow Domains loomed large in Keith's mind, an empty expanse of black sand and purple ice beneath a shattered scarlet sky brimming with far-flung stars and a dozen green-white moons. Obelisks of bone-pale stone, carved with runes and dripping with blood and tattered banners, peeked out of the sand like the fingers of long-decayed corpses. Shards of ice and glass indeed rained down from the floating chunks of rock cascading across the sky, the random bolts of freezing sky-glass constantly crashing and breaking against the mottled surface of twisted gray spires of what Lance could only assume was a city. Atop a knob of black rock streaked with amber and dusted with frost, a younger version of Keith, maybe sixteen years old or so at the time, sat huddled in the frigid wind, naked save for the ruins of a crimson cloak about his shoulders, his horrified gaze locked on the burning shell of a tower high above the ash heaps and the snow drifts surrounding him. Everywhere around him, the bodies of fellow demons lay sprawled upon the ground, pools of blood coursing into the snow, leaving small blossom-shaped puddles. Keith's tail and ears lay still, his eyes flickered colors beneath long lashes, and Lance knew instantly what had happened.

This was the day his High Clutch was overthrown by other demons jealous of their powers, their wealth, their beauty. This was the day that Keith had lost it all-his family, his title, his world. This was the day he been left to die, forsaken and alone, an outcast in the cruel and forbidding realm of the Shadow Domains, where winter ruled eternal and fire made flesh could last only so long.

A portal of scarlet smoke whipped into existence against the snow drifts in Keith's memories and Lance saw that this was also the day that Keith had been summoned by Shiro for the first time. Eyes full of tears, full of hatred, Keith reached forward and accepted the summoning, accepted the iron that bound him to another reality, hoping that there would be kinder faces in the human realm, kinder people. Apart from Shiro, Keith found that it was not so, that humans were just as bad as demons, that there was nowhere he could go where he was wanted, and so his heart hardened for all save the one who had saved him. And, Lance could sense, it had softened for him as well, slowly but surely.

Lance gulped, pushed through the blur of memories in order to make sure they didn't all leak away into the bloated brain-belly of the mindbleeder, and found Keith as he was now inside his mind, an image trapped in claws black as basalt, a dagger of the mind pointing straight at the back of his head, ready to plunge and push away all that was Keith for good. Lance saw Pidge reach into Keith's melange of memories as well and together, they leaped forward with a scream, swiping away the image of the dagger and pushing Keith aside. Lance grabbed at Keith's hand and suddenly felt the entire world return to normal.

"Wh-what just happened?" Keith whispered, his eyes darting around to look as the surreal mindscape melted away and reality was restored. The mindbleeder that had attached itself to Keith had begun to deflate like a balloon, screeching all the while, and Lance saw that Hunk had heroically managed to skewer the other two with both his sword and bayard, proving that he was quite right about his dual-wielding abilities.

"I just saved your life, that's what," Lance laughed as he lay next to Keith in the field of striped grass, dark rose petals blowing across their faces and getting caught in their hair, their eyes deeply locked with the others. Lance shook his head, stood up with Pidge's help, then grabbed Keith's hand and helped the bewildered demon boy up off of his fine, fallen ass. "Pidge helped, too. Good idea you had there, having us feed our thoughts to it at the same time as yours and overloading it. How'd you know that would work?"

"I, I had a hunch, that's all," Keith said, his voice hoarse and cracking as he rubbed at his throat, the small mark left by the tentacles fortunately fading already. "I could see inside the mindbleeder, feel the way its hunger and its powers worked, figured out it could only eat so much at once. There, there are more of them coming, a whole cluster. We got lucky that we only encountered these If we run, we can make it, I think."

"Then we better get running," Lance said with a sigh. Funny, he felt no fear then, thinking of how he needed to run to safety once more. After seeing what Keith had been through, he realized that he had never been so alone, that with his friends around him, he would never have to feel such fear gnawing at him the way it had once filled Keith. Gods, he couldn't imagine having suffered the way Keith had. No wonder the ex-prince of the demons had such a strong connection to Shiro, being saved in such a way on such a black day as that.

"Come on, Hunk," Keith wheezed, his iron ear piercings dangling as he wobbled back onto the path, "we have to get going! We've got a few minutes left at best!"

"Aw, but I was having fun!" Hunk laughed as he stabbed his sword into the deflated remains of the mindbleeder and moved it around in the squishy remains so it squelched and screeched. One of the lions-who had all cowered behind a big rock during the fight, the big dumb softies-started pawing at the slimy remains and Hunk gently batted its paw away from the mess. "Oh well, probably best to get out of here before my battle senses fail me and I start panicking like a little kid. Never did I ever expect to have to fight giant brains in my life. Damn, the Altean Knight Academy never trained me for anything for this, nothing about in the brochures or anything. All promises of shiny steel and saving fair maidens from ridiculously tall towers, nothing about everything trying to kill you in rather nasty ways. Someone should sue them for false advertising."

"Let's make it through this and I'll help you out with the paperwork," Pidge said with a sly grin, spectacles all askew after the tussle. Hunk placed a big meaty hand down on Pidge's head and mussed up the young mage's hair, earning a giggle. "Now, come on, Hunk, let's going. Warm beds and food awaiting us on the other side if we make it."

"Hell yeah, hot tavern maids, here we come!" Lance shouted, punching the air. Keith's face turned quite cross and Lance chuckled intensely, the demon's face as priceless as he'd hoped it would be. Lance then remembered the danger they were in and all the exposed memories of Keith's terrible past and he decided it was best to just get going and leave the teasing for later. "Um, I mean, yeah, warm beds and food, hurray!"

Keith shook his head and sighed as Lance put his arms around his wiry frame, draping his gangly limbs over the demon's shoulders, and helped him hobble away, smiles on both of their faces. They had faced their fears and survived the day together-so far.

Tired and sore and yet feeling far better than they had been before, the four questers gathered up their strength and their courage, lead the lions away from the roses and the ruins, and headed towards the other end of the valley and to yet another promised point of safety, one step closer to the Crystal Blight, one step closer to Shiro and Matt.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, that's a wrap on Chapter 7! Chapter 8 is expected to be the first of a couple of smut-filled chapters in this story so those of you who are reading for that, you won't have to wait much longer! Those who are simply reading for fantasy adventure and sorcery shenanigans, the story will essentially take a pause for that so you can skip to Chapter 9 when I get to it! Those of you who like both, enjoy! Hope to have it up in the next day or so if possible, I'll try not to wait as long as I did this weekend. Thanks again for reading, kudos and comments, hope you all enjoyed this chapter! :)


	8. Bonding Moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry it took me a few days to get to Chapter 8-aka the first of a couple of smut chapters in this fic for people looking out for that, not relevant to the overall plot so you can skip it if you so wish-as I haven't been feeling too well. Hope you all enjoy the newest chapter and I'll try not to let the next update take more than a day or two to get to. Also, in case anyone liked the previous bit of fan art for this fic from the wonderful tumblr user anetteloli, then here's another set of great fan art for this fic: anetteloli.tumblr.com/post/150794724518/the-latest-sketches-for-once-upon-a-klance-this. Please like the post and definitely follow the blog, they're quite nice and talented with drawing (you can also follow my tumblr at darklord99blog if you so wish, sorry for more shameless promotion.)
> 
> Anyway, without further ado, here's Chapter 8! Thanks for all kudos, comments, reading and enjoying! :)

The Valley of the Mindbleeders was sufficiently dangerous and difficult enough to get through that once the party reached the other side, blazing brains, blue mountains and black roses behind them by a good few miles, Lance knelt down beside his winged blue lion and kissed the sweet, safe ground. He recoiled as soon as the dirt touched his lips but the feeling was still there, the wonderful feeling of being free and safe. Best of all, he could feel his ability to summon the elemental forces of magic flood his every sense once more. To celebrate, Lance let loose a plume of blue-white flame that scorched a scraggly bush with scarlet stems and goldenrod leaves, earning a snarling snort of disapproval from his lion.

"What? It's perfectly harmless, you big stupid cat," Lance laughed, patting the big blue beast on its furry back and stroking the soft mane to soothe the beast, still surprised at how scared the creature had been back there among the mindbleeders. Big and fierce though they were, the royal lions of Altea had spent most of their lives sheltered in the castle's stables, unused to the ways of the world like their legendary sire, Voltron, had once been.

"And here I thought it was you and Keith that needed to get a room," Pidge muttered as they trotted along behind Lance and his lion, grabbing some coinage from their dwindling supplies for the tavern they'd soon be approaching. "Seems you and that dirt there are quite into each other, too. "

"Har har, Pidge," Lance grumbled, running a hand through his short brown hair and re-mounting his blue lion so they could all get the hell to safety as fast as possible. "Just happy to be alive and away from that all." Pidge's ever-present teasing did make him think for a moment, though. The lions would be far too tired for another trek through wormholes tonight so he and Keith would get a chance to share a room tonight, if they so wished. After everything they'd been through, if Keith didn't want to jump Lance's bones or vice-versa, he'd probably let loose enough flame from stress that was powerful enough to engulf the entire tavern. And if the demon boy did want Lance, well, he was going to make him work for it. Considering how much teasing and toying Keith had inflicted upon Lance, it only served the lost prince of the high demon clutches right.

Lance wouldn't make him work too hard, though. Between the thoughts and memories Lance had endured by entering Keith's mind and his own desires tugging at his longing loins, Lance certainly hoped he could make tonight the best part of the quest that didn't involve directly securing Shiro's safety. If he succeeded in driving Keith away instead, well, then he truly would be the stupidest apprentice in all of the Grand Order of Altean Mages.

A half-hour's ride brought them out of the rugged foothills at the edge of the mountains and into a bustling little trade town that strode across the main crossroads of the Balmeran Confederacy and waited upon the gray waters of its northern sea-Stonebarrow. The houses were high and made of brownstone and brick, their roofs peaked and tiled in a myriad of colors-bronze, slate blue, forest green. Colorful banners marked in multiple alphabets and symbols fluttered in the wind, piebald horses and strange six-legged reptilian beasts with fiery red manes trotted briskly along paved roads straight as an arrow, balls of flame and shards of glowing spirit glass floated along as the early evening sky turned a velvety blue-black, lighting nearly every corner of the prosperous town. A similar level of civility and gentility to the village of Hornford was evident but not in the same creepily cute and calm manner as had been brought about by the now-destroyed Peacekeeper. The dozen or so guards at the soon-closing gate, bristling with short swords and daggers with wickedly curved blades, certainly proved that Stonebarrow was a town where life both friendly and unfriendly lived side by side.

Lance didn't care one whit about the town's crime rate or trade guild rivalries or troubles with neighboring nations or whatever. Anywhere was safer than a valley full of giant squishy brain vampires.

"Best hurry up and go find a place to stay for the night," a tall, sword-slender guardswoman with long honey blonde hair beneath a round steel helmet told him as they passed through the gates. Her face was pale and pointy, her eyes a smoky blue-gray and Lance found himself wishing he could invite her over for the night as well, though he had no idea what Keith would think of that. "The amount of merchants that show up here this time of year means you're not guaranteed to find a room and we have a curfew so you've got to find some place to stay. Judging by those big furry fellows you're riding, you'll need a good stable, too."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll find somewhere nice enough," Hunk chuckled from beside him. "I know someone from Balmera, you know, a really good friend, she told me there's several good inns here that are low at cost and have some excellent food and drink..."

"That really good friend of yours wouldn't happen to be the Lady Shay now, would it?" Pidge said with a shit-eating smirk. "How good a friend is she, again, precisely?" Hunk blushed and turned rigid as a statue, neither confirming nor denying Pidge's sassy supposition. 

Lance rolled his eyes, leaned against the guardhouse door and gave the guardswoman his most winning smile, the sort reserved for royalty and visiting dignitaries. The sort most likely to mildly annoy Keith, who was busy trying to chew the green-blue plumes sticking out of another guard's helmet. "Well, my good woman-oh, Sergeant, apparently, my what a fine rank that is, you must be really god at your job-well, anyway, as I was saying, if we can't find a place to stay tonight, perhaps we'd be welcome to come stay at yours? If it's a small place, I'm sure the others can find a stable, I could just drop on by..." Lance could hear Keith's tail swishing back and forth impatiently behind him. Good, he was getting him at least a little bothered...

The sergeant's stony face cracked a small, sly grin. "If by my place, you mean the holding cells back here in the gatehouse, then sure, by all means, come give me a visit. I'll be sure to lock you up real nice and tight for the whole evening."

Pidge snorted, Hunk chuckled, and Lance heard his demon prince let loose an evil little laugh. "N-never mind, then, ma'am, er, sir, er, Sergeant. We'll be on our way and keep ourselves well behaved in your fine and lovely town."

"You better," the woman said with a sharp nod of her helmeted head, waving at the guards behind them to close the gates to Stonebarrow for the night. They had made it to the safety of the town, just in the nick of time.

About twenty minutes later, after having searched three of the major inns and finding them all crowded, they at last came to a small and shabby building near the harbor, an inn and tavern by the name of The Greasy Monkfish. lance had no idea if monkfish were actually greasy but the smell of food coming from inside was overwhelming all his other senses so he lead his three friends towards it, pleased to find there was no sign proclaiming them to be full. Good food, a good bed and a good fuck were all Lance really wanted right then and it looked like he'd get at least two out of the three. When he turned to look at Keith to see if the demon prince was ok, if he'd even show any signs of wanting Lance's attention, and found that Keith's pointed purple ears were twitching and his onyx-colored eyes were practically boring holes in the back of Lance's head, his mouth a rigid rictus.

Lance gulped as he turned his head around, eyes nearly having bugged out at the sight. Good gods, he had no idea how demons felt towards those they designated as potential mates noticing others, flirting with others. Had he made a grave error? Or was Keith merely just a little bit jealous that Lance would flatter anyone but him? Well, there was only one way to find out...

The portly and moustachioed innkeeper-the best kind, Lance found, one could never trust a skinny innkeeper-greeted them all kindly, his kindness increasing as Pidge counted out a decent-sized stack of golden coins, the tiny mage's face wincing at how little was left over at the end. Their rooms would be small and not the finest, so the innkeeper sadly assured him, but they would be warm and dry with soft featherbeds and a decent meal to fill them up beforehand. Lance nearly wept at hearing that all-civilization still existed out here after all!

They grabbed a table close enough to the bar that they wouldn't have to wait long but not so close as to attract too much notice. Pidge brought out Rover and used her metal-based enchantments to make the pyramid-shaped familiar dance around to the delight of a few children, Hunk made odd faces as he tried to make out which of the strange and colorful drinks behind the counter would be the safest to drink (one bottle had weird little glowing worms floating in it, of all things), and Lance spent his time fluttering his eyelashes and making sassy small talk with the comely tavern maids and trading saucy banter with the handsome young man behind the bar. Lance looked back now and again to see whether Keith would notice, if that sour, surly face would show again, but all the demon prince did was swallow the silverware and stick out his long red tail all rigid so the occasional person would trip over it, much to the demon prince's devious delight. After a while, their meal arrived-a well-seasoned meat pie with a crispy golden-brown crust-and the four travelers dug in, barely speaking as they devoured their food, so tired and hungry were they.

A night of drinking, dancing and music followed, the first real fun they'd had the whole way and though Lance felt a little upset that they enjoyed themselves while Shiro and Matt rotted in a Galra prison cell, he didn't feel too bad-after all, they were almost on the Crystal Blight of Quiznak and then into Galra itself, there was nothing but danger and potentially death ahead of them. He was sure Shiro would understand them taking a small break before heading into certain doom and devastation.

Lance looked about the tavern's common room after dancing with practically every pretty tavern maid and the innkeeper's son and saw that, as the crowd dwindled away back to their homes or to their rooms, Keith had vanished. Hunk, who had also danced and drunk a good bit, was laying with his face down on the table while Pidge patted him gently on the head as they read a book, not having wanted to indulge in the frolic and frivolity whatsoever. Lance knew that any questions about Keith would merely invoke Pidge's wry jibes and jokes so he merely waved good night at them and headed up the stairs to his room for the evening, hoping that perhaps Keith would be waiting there or that he would come by and give him a knock.

As Lance fumbled with the keys to his tiny little bedchamber for the night, he head a soft set of familiar footfalls and a swishing sound and looked up, almost too late. Lance yelped as Keith literally pounced on him and pushed him through the bedchamber's door, the two of them landing on the wooden floor with a small, short thud. A low rumbling noise resonated in Keith's throat as he looked down at Lance pinned beneath him, that surly face from earlier replaced with a mask of arousal even greater than what he'd shown back at the bathhouse in Hornford. A mild amount of annoyance showed in his face, too, and Lance found that just as enticing. Keith looked really, really hot when he was pissed off.

"You've been playing games with me all night," Keith said as he held Lance's squirming body on the floor, not too roughly or tightly but enough that Lance couldn't get away. The pressure was a little strong but Lance was surprised to find he quite liked it. "Talking to that soldier woman, the tavern staff. Looking, laughing, dancing with them. You've known for this whole trip that there's an attraction between us, between the summoner and the summoned. Why would you do such a thing, Enchanter Boy? Hmm? You know I've wanted to reward you for your actions on this journey, especially after saving me in the valley back there."

"Well, I don't know, Demon Boy, maybe I just thought there should be a third person with us tonight?" Lance said with a nervous little laugh. Keith's fingers dug into Lance's shoulder and he had to suppress a little yelp. "Um, no, I really didn't think, don't worry, threesomes aren't all they're cracked up to be...well, they're actually pretty amazing, to be honest, only had the one but I'd do it again in a heartbeat...but not with you, ahaha, you're clearly more than enough for me to handle..."

"Who says you're doing the handling, Lance?" Keith said, flashing a sharp-toothed grin. "I imagine that this was all just payback for me toying with your affections over the length of our quest, yes? Your attempt at driving me wild as they say here in the human world?" Keith chuckled and leaned his face forward as Lance nodded vigorously, his heart beating faster, his tight breeches even tighter around his raging erection. "Good, glad to see that it worked, then. Your efforts were similarly somewhat effective though far weaker than my own, you have to admit."

"You sure about that? You seem kind of pissed off and you're pinning me down to the floor as a result. Seems to me like it was far more than just somewhat effective."

"Hmm. I suppose it was." Keith leaned down, black bangs spilling into his blacker eyes, smirked as he let his hot breath whisper out from between his lips and onto Lance's face, then moved down and began smashing his lips into Lance's. A small moan emitted from Lance's throat as the demon boy kissed hims fierce and fast, holding him down all the while, iron-pierced tongue moving in and out, the sensation of the warmth and wetness of their lips the entirety of Lance's world. Keith's hands moved away from holding Lance's arms down and began moving up and down his shoulders, his collarbone, his chest. With one single gesture, Keith ripped apart Lance's linen shirt, buttons popping everywhere, and Lance gasped as Keith's lips, teeth and tongue moved down from his face to his now exposed chest, hungrily sucking at the place where his shoulder met his neck, moving down the smooth brown skin to the hardening nipples awaiting attention.

"K-keith," Lance struggled to say as his demon prince left demanding, desperate kisses all up and down his torso. "Keith, please, oh my gods, I don't want you to stop but the door's open..." 

"Hmm? Oh yeah, so it is." Keith flicked out his tufty red tail and used it to slam the door shut, his expression full of lust. "Well, now that that little problem is out of the way...seriously, you humans and your prudishness, were this the Shadow Domains we would mate regardless of who was nearby..."

"Yours is a strange, strange world, Keith," Lance sighed as Keith ran a hand down Lance's abdomen, a fingernail extending into a claw so he could rip at the laces of the tight gray breeches. "Um, we're still on the floor, too, and, and, oh gods, that feels good...Keith, please, a moment here..."

Keith raised an eyebrow and frowned, moving back slightly as he straddled Lance's waist. "I don't understand, Lance. Do you not want us to bond like this? You've done almost nothing but stare at me since you first brought me here and considering how we've saved each other's lives, I expected you wanted us to connect in such a manner."

"Wow, such a sexy, seductive talker you turned out to be," Lance said with a snort. Keith frowned and moved his fingers over to squeeze and pinch at one of Lance's nipples, causing him to make a sort of odd half-laugh, half-moan. "Oh gods, sorry, sorry...look, Keith, by gods, yes I want you, though I'm still not sure how I want you or how you want me...I do know that I don't want this on the floor, it feels a bit odd down here. The floor's all hard a bit dusty for one thing."

"Hmm. Fine, I shall release you for a moment, Lance." Keith darted back quick as a breeze and Lance let loose a sigh of relief as he got off the floor, frowning somewhat at his ruined shirt and his loosened trouser. He turned towards the bed and let out a little yelp as he felt Keith's hands reach out from behind and trace a slow, soft line down his spine and towards his tailbone, the slightly extended claws reaching downward to tug off Lance's gray breeches and short blue underbreeches in one go, the chill of the room hitting Lance's now-naked body in one sharp burst though not nearly cold enough to stop the heat of his throbbing cock. Lance shuddered as the demon prince's hands ran down his back, up his legs, stopping to cup the flesh of his buttocks and giving them a good squeeze.

"Here. On the bed. Now." Lance shook himself awake from the soft, sensual place his brain had gone too as Keith had stroked his backside and he found himself tumbling onto the feather bed, his back against the wall, his sudden trip cushioned by a great many pillows. Keith shed the black clothes and boots from his body practically in a single move, tugging off the dark red silken loincloth in one go and letting loose his own throbbing, rampant cock, its head swollen and ready to penetrate. Lance had kind of hoped that perhaps he would be the one topping tonight-after all, how many people could say they'd fucked a smoking hot demon prince?-but given how Keith was acting, Lance figured it might be best to wait for that for another night.

"At last we can indulge ourselves, prince and enchanter, alone at last." Keith chuckled as he crawled onto the bed, practically slithering his pale naked body onto Lance's dusky brown form, his starving mouth greedily claiming Lance's own once more. Lance moaned and sighed and grunted as Keith held his head in one hand and grabbed at his cock with the other, touching their two erections to one another and stroking them soft and slow at first, then giving them a quick, hard pumping that made Lance buck and arch at one point, the feeling was so electric and erotic. After several minutes of stroking cocks and biting at Lance's nipples, Keith moved forward a bit and placed his chest against Lance's mouth, moving his own pierced nipples towards the lips. "Suck them, Lance."

"Gladly." Lance had always been fond of nipples, be they on bouncy breasts or flat, firm chests, and Keith's were definitely quite pleasant to touch. The demon prince let out a little moan of his own as Lance touched the pierced, perky nubs with his teeth and tongue, rolling it about in a way that sent Keith's hips buckling and his cock grinding into Lance's legs. Keith soon moved his chest away from Lance, sat up a bit, and smirked wickedly as he moved up and straddled Lance's upper torso. The demon prince grabbed Lance's arms, pinned them both against the wall, then began waving his rampant, rigid cock in Lance's face, the hard head feeling so good as it slid against Lance's cheek. "Now, suck this instead, Lance, just like you would've back at the bathhouse."

"But-but why are you pinning down my arms again, Keith?"

"So you don't feel tempted to play with yourself while I fuck your face, Enchanter Boy," Keith laughed. "Don't worry, though, Lance, I'll take care of you." Keith's tail flickered all over Lance's crotch, the red tufts sliding through his thatch of pubic hair, leaving slow traces all over his legs, stroking at his tightening balls, then finally grabbing at his cock and stroking it hard and fast. "Now, be a good mage and take care of your demon, all right?"

"Y-yes, my prince." Lance closed his eyes and opened his mouth wide and felt a hard, warm, thick throbbing cock enter his mouth, slow as molasses, just as bad of a tease as Keith's flirting had been. The head brushed his lips, the shaft then moved past his teeth, and Lance took the cock fully into his mouth and pleasured the demon prince like he had never pleasured anyone before. He nibbled at the demon cock soft and tender at first than hard and sharp, earning a hiss and a groan from Keith. He licked his tongue about, tasting salty pre-cum as he teased the slit, and swirled it all over the shaft before he took the full length of Keith-and it was pretty damn full-deep into him, thankful that he didn't really have a gag reflex. Keith's tail tightened around his own exposed, engorged cock as a result and Lance nearly came right then and there.

"H-here," Keith said, "I'm going to ride you harder, ok?" Lance tried to nod and merely made a bit of a squeak as Keith pounded and rode and ground into Lance's mouth, the bed squeaking and thrumming beneath them as they entangled themselves in one another. Lance's head felt ready to push back through the wall as Keith kept driving into his mouth, his cock huge and slick from all the sucking. Keith moved his cock out after a few minutes then let Lance roll his tongue all over his balls instead for a while, the taste and texture a little strange, especially with the curly hair all about, though it was fortunately shorter and less annoying than some guys Lance had sucked off. Eventually, Keith pulled away from Lance's face, his chest heaving and his breath huffing as he finished thrusting into Lance's face, and he smiled as he let Lance's wrists go. "I have an idea, Lance. Before I ride you, as thanks for the other day, you get to ride me first."

"R-really?"

"Oh yes, but in a manner of my choosing." Keith reached over to Lance's saddlebags on the other side of the bed and pulled out a small bottle full of a lotion he'd used to keep his skin soft against the abrasive winds they'd often faced on the road. "This should serve to help make entrance easier." Keith dabbed his fingers in the lotion and then began to stick them up his own ass, squirming and sighing as he thrust upwards into his tight hole. "Hmm, oh yes, oh, that's good...here, Lance, you can help..."

Lance nodded eagerly and rubbed some of the slick and scented lotion onto his fingers and onto his cock, sliding one in next to the fingers Keith had already used to begin stretching himself. The ring of muscles in Keith's rear entrance were surprisingly loosened already and Lance only had to apply so much pressure before Keith let out a long, low pleasure moan, turning his dark gaze to Lance and grinning. "Ooh, I want more of you inside me, yes...here, remove your hand, let me, ah, let me ride you, lean back and enjoy..."

Lance's eyes widened and his breath grew ragged as Keith straddled him and lowered his ass onto Lance's rampant cock, wriggling and rocking his hips back and forth as he settled down. Lance felt all his nerves tingle and his limbs turn to liquid as he felt his lubed-up cock thrust into Keith's entrance, the red tail flickering and flying wild as he fucked the demon prince from underneath. The soft bed bounced and rippled beneath them as Keith moved up and down the full length of Lance, fondling his own cock all the while with one hand, vigorously rubbing at a pierced nipple with the other. Lance writhed and moaned as he lay there and let Keith move faster and faster, the sound of balls and buttcheeks smacking against one another quite audible as their fucking grew more vigorous and heated. Oh gods, he was going to come, he was going to-

Keith slid off of Lance's cock, a playfully vicious gleam in his eyes. He stroked at a nipple and rubbed at his pierced ears and simply said, "My turn now, Lance."

With one movement, Keith flipped Lance over onto his belly, causing him to squeak, then grabbed at the tender flesh of his tightened buttcheeks and pushed them apart, exposing Lance's puckered entrance to Keith's face. Lance cried out as the pierced tongue of the demon prince entered him and moved about fast and fierce, rimming him to a point where Lance felt on the verge of coming as badly as he had when Keith had straddled his cock. Deft fingers dabbed in lotion soon moved in and out of Lance, pushing pressure farther and farther up, and then, Lance felt it, the stiff and swollen cock that had driven into his mouth such a short time before, now shoving into his ass, slathered in lube and demanding all of Lance to envelop it.

"K-Keith! Aah!" Lance grabbed at the sheets and bit at the pillow as Keith pounded and pounded and slammed into him, pushing forth all that demon might into Lance's behind, his grunting and growling even stronger and greater than it had been in battle. Lance felt his tormented cock drive into the soft folds of the feather bed as Keith continued to have his way with him, the demon prince's cock a heated, rigid sword, Lance's spread cheeks his sheath. Lance continued to gasp and groan and bite his lip as Keith flicked his tail all over his bare back and, at some point, the pressure and pleasure was so great that Lance erupted all over the sheets, sticky semen getting all over his balls and belly and the bed itself. Keith kept driving and plowing into him, though, and Lance felt almost ready to collapse, so tired was his butt, his knees, his entire being from Keith's wild, ravenous attentions. Even so, he wanted more. "Oh gods, keep going, keep going, don't stop, please, oh gods..."

"I'm about to come," Keith growled. "As an Enchanter, you should, aaah, appreciate this, you're always after us for this..."

"Wh-what?" Lance gasped, his vision, no, his whole world a blur as Keith continued to move in and out, in and out of him, thrusting so fast he could almost take off like a rocket at the speed he was going, the sound of flesh smacking into flesh almost a thrum. Lance meant to ask him what he meant by that but he couldn't think straight. "Keith, ohhhh my gods, Keith, ahhh..."

"Hnnnnaah!" Keith snarled, his voice low and guttural as he cried out and came into Lance, the sticky heat filling Lance's ass feeling surprisingly good. Keith kept moving for a few moments more even as he had already come and then, at last, Lance sighed with a mix of relief and regret as Keith left him, both of their cocks and bodies fully spent.

The demon prince collapsed next to him on the bed, both their chests rising and falling, both their bodies slick with sweat and filled with the sweet soreness of relief. They looked at one another, laughed and smiled as if they had just won a great victory, and fell asleep against each other in the last spot of warmth and safety they were likely to see on the mission. Lance didn't know what it was they have but he knew he was extremely glad that he'd summoned this demon of all the ones in the ancient, musty books of magic.

He also knew that, as soon as they rescued the lost and forlorn Court Wizard of Altea, that Shiro would have to answer a lot of questions. For now, though, Lance merely rested his head and sighed happily as he felt Keith's tail run up and down his back, likely awaiting whichever one of them would awaken first in the night to start this all over again.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, that's Chapter 8! Hope everyone enjoyed that naughty Klance goodness, hot demon-on-enchanter action, whatever you wish to call it. Hope you all enjoyed reading it, all kudos and comments are appreciated, next time in Chapter 9 back to the quest and onwards to rescue Shiro (after all, not only is he needed to save the realm, but also for yet more smutty shenanigans later on of the threesome variety.) Thanks to everyone for being such great readers! :)


	9. Demonseed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry if its been a few days longer than expected for this update-I am still alive, I am not dead, an ex-writer, bereft of life, he rests in peace, etc. (Another Monty Python reference, sorry-check out the Dead Parrot sketch online if you've not heard that one.) Life hasn't been too kind to me the past few days-headaches, sleeplessness, long hours at work, etc.-so writing conditions haven't been the best. Hope to get the rest of this story up soon, though, I'll see what I can do. Anyway, after the smutty shenanigans of the last chapter, its time for our characters to return to their quest, they're almost there-after just a little bit more smut and silliness for the hell of it :)

Lance awoke the next morning with a grunt and a cracking of joints, his body part of a tangle of warm, worn-out limbs beneath tousled blankets. A shaft of light streamed through the window and fell upon the sleeping face of the demon prince laying beside him, his hair a matted mullet mess that Lance liked to run his fingers through slowly and gently. Gods, did it feel good to wake up next to someone like this, to have another person who liked to touch him and be touched by him so close, so at ease. Lance had spent so many years feeling unwanted, unnoticed that he was forever in search of someone who could make him feel whole and content and wanted, if even for a night. Who'd have thought a demon prince of all beings could make him feel that way?

"Keith," Lance whispered, wondering if he should awake the demon gently or if he should be a little rough with him. The prince had woken him up at least three times throughout the night, hard and horny each time, and Lance had gladly joined in for some fun. Now that it was morning, however, Lance realized how drained he was from all the fucking and rolling around the two of them had gotten up to. A thought occurred to Lance as to how to wake the demon and he cackled evilly as he reached on over towards Keith's buttocks and ran his fingers up the long red tail that Keith had used so well in so many ways the previous night.

Keith shuddered and stirred as his sensitive tail swished and swayed all about. "Lance, you impudent scoundrel," he growled, a small grin spreading across his pale, sleepy face. "Touching the tail of a prince like that would ordinarily bring about an order for your execution even if I wasn't exiled. It's a good thing I like you so much."

"Good morning to you, too," Lance chuckled as he lay back against the headboard, the rumpled white sheets spilling off of his bare brown body and onto the floor. "I know we're tired from last night and we're not likely to see another bed again and all but we need to get up. After breakfast, we have another couple of wormhole jumps to get to and I'm sure Pidge will be here any moment to wake us up..."

"Then its a good thing we're already awake before they show up," Keith sighed as he rolled over to expose his sprawled and naked body in full detail, shoved the sheets off of the bed and propped his head against Lance's leg, his eyes glancing at Lance's cock, stiffened as it often was upon waking up. The demon used one hand to toy with the earring dangling from a tufted ear while the other hand caressed his pierced nipples, causing his recumbent body to arch slightly. "Looks like someone needs a little attention-an enchanter's staff must be well taken care of, after all..."

Lance raised an eyebrow. "Again? I know demons have greater appetites than humans but this is a little ridiculous..."

"Nothing major, Lance, just me giving you a little good morning gift before we depart." Keith rolled his face over to Lance's cock and began to slowly rub his lips up and down while moving his one hand from his ear down to his own cock, stroking and fondling himself and making Lance ready to explode at the sight alone. "That is, if you'd like me to..."

"S-sure, we probably have a few minutes, why not? Ahahaha." Lance covered his face with both hands in shame at his nervous words and Keith merely chuckled in response. A moment later Lance let out a little yelp as he felt Keith's mouth engulf him and his tongue and teeth move up and down with great gusto. Tired though he was, the sensation was enough to flood his body with tingling warmth that awoke and aroused everything. Keith's deep, dark eyes looked up at him from beneath bushy bangs and Lance couldn't help but let out a long moan as Keith not only began to deep throat him but also began wiggling a finger into and up his asshole. Lance had been woken up in many weird and wonderful ways before but this was by far one of the best-

A loud fist banged at the door repeatedly. "Lance?!" The shrill strident cries of Pidge's voice almost killed the mood for Lance but Keith kept sucking away at him as if nothing were amiss. "Lance, we need to get going. Are you decent in there?"

"Oh no, far, far from decent..." Lance strained to say as Keith rolled his tongue over his cock's head licked it long and slow, stopping to tease the slit. Lance's heart felt ready to explode from his chest from the sensation.

"I couldn't hear you, Lance-here, let me come in, see if you need help packing-" Lance nearly shrieked as the doorknob began to turn but fortunately for him Keith's tail moved lightning quick and lashed itself around the knob, keeping it stuck in place.

"Best not to come in, Pidge," Lance said, breathing a sigh of relief then squeaking as Keith began to move his mouth faster and faster. "Really, really, ahhhh, don't come in..."

"Keith's in there, isn't he?" Pidge's voice grumbled from behind the door. "See you two downstairs at breakfast, then-have fun but be quick about it, ok? And if that was you two up at all hours last night keeping half the inn awake I'm going to get you back later, I didn't get a wink of sleep last night..."

Lance tried to groan and gripe at Pidge's words as the diminutive mage left them alone but wound up gasping instead as his cock popped out of Keith's mouth so the demon could breathe for a second. The movement and the wet warmth of the lips sliding off of his slick hardness was so overwhelming that Lance wound up coming right then and there, sputtering and spattering all over the bed and Keith's slightly startled face.

"Oh gods, Keith," Lance squeaked as he saw the mess he had made, too embarrassed to let out the full orgasmic bellow he'd wanted to let loose at the powerful sensation. Keith merely smirked as he looked up from his place between Lance's legs, running some fingers across his face to mop up the mess of semen. "I am so, so sorry..."

"I have had far worse things on my face, Enchanter," Keith said, shrugging those fine shoulders of his as he rose from the bed, grabbed a washcloth from the bedside table for his face and stretched out his limbs, his tail uncoiling from the doorknob. He thrust his body forward in an undulating fashion and nodded his face down towards his own engorged and erect cock, demanding attention. "If you're so sorry, then how about giving me another go before we head downstairs? I'm sure they won't mind waiting..."

Lance gulped, nodded, and then got down on the floor and onto his knees and took Keith into his mouth, closing his eyes as he felt his lips touch the demon's throbbing member. By the gods, just what had he gotten himself into when he'd summoned him here?

About an hour later, the two of them had washed and dressed-Lance in his blue-grey woolens, Keith in his black silks and short red coat-and headed for the common room. Pidge's eye twitched as the two young men sat down, Keith acting cool and casual as he often did, Lance trying very hard not to meet Pidge's glare. Hunk, always one of the greats when it came to sleeping, was rather convivial in his greetings as he wolfed down a plate of fried bread and bacon and clearly hadn't heard about their exploits about the night before.

Pidge took a deep breath, sipped at their mug of sweet-milk, and then began to talk as if they were planning to ignore everything the two of them had gotten up to. "Right. Now that you two are settled, order something, eat up, and get out to the stables. We need to get going and fast. According to my charts and books, the Seventh Transition is about to occur soon and that's the best time to fly through the shifting crystal fields out in the Blight of Quiznak. If we wait too long, any longer than the Ninth Transition, then we won't be able to fly through safely."

"I've been to the Blight during the Ninth Transition," Keith said solemnly, all sign of his earlier lustiness gone as he resumed his stance as the sullen sundered prince or another world beyond the shadows. "That's when all the worst monsters come on out from beneath the shifting crust to feed. Trust me when I say you don't want to see the tentacles of a leviathan take out a fully grown dragon, it's not pretty."

"Not a great image to have when wanting to order breakfast, either," Lance grumbled, though it wasn't enough to stop him from attempting to swipe some of Hunk's bacon. The big, burly knight stabbed a fork at his wandering hand, muttered, "Dude, not cool," then began to gobble down and crunch his bacon rather loudly.

"We have another reason to eat and get out of here," Pidge said quietly, leaning in so any other guests or tavern maids couldn't overhear them. "Remember all our theories about a spy possibly following us and making sure danger falls across our path? I think we might have just found them." Pidge nodded their head casually in the direction of the back of the common room and both Lance and Keith tried their best to get a look without being noticed.

Seated at a table beside the roaring hearth, behind another table where a three-eyed Trisighter sat talking and drinking with a shaggy-haired creature of unknown species, was a figure dressed in a deep black cloak and hood, their face hidden, their hands clasped tightly around the handle of their polished pewter mug. Lance looked only for a second, was far across a crowded room and yet, the hooded figure turned its gaze towards him, the face hidden in shadow surely looking deep into his eyes.

Lance pulled back, shook his head, ordered the same breakfast that Hunk had eaten from a passing pretty tavern maid, then tried his very hardest not to panic. Keith didn't order anything at all-he was quite happy to eat Hunk's plate and the leftover candle nubs from the night before-and leaned back in his seat as if the sight of the cloaked and hooded figure hadn't bothered him whatsoever. Lance could tell that this wasn't the case, however-Keith's tail was flickering wildly against the floor, across his legs, letting loose the internal screaming that Keith was too refined and reserved to show.

"Now, Pidge," Hunk said calmly as he ate his last slice of fried bread, his other hand gripping at the handle of his sword. "We don't know that this is a spy or someone sent to kill us. I know you've often jumped to conclusions before in your paranoia and your desire to protect people-remember that incident with your brother, those ducks, the jam-covered knife and the pastry chef back at the Castle?-and I know you're just trying to help, but we have no proof that the man back there is anything more than just another traveler come into Stonebarrow to sell their wares..."

"Hunk, you're a knight of many skills but I think years of guard duty have actually dulled your wits slightly," Pidge snapped. Hunk frowned and Pidge sighed and blushed in sheepish shame. "Sorry, didn't mean to upset you. And I know you're right about my paranoia being a bit much at times, especially where my brother's concerned-but I am so, sooo right about this. That guy came straight in, has done nothing but order a mug of mead and has been staring at us the whole time. He's got a hood and cloak, too, and you know that in every questing story that mysterious strangers wearing cloaks and hoods are either there to help the heroes or hurt and hinder their progress." Pidge sniffed. "Also, those ducks and that pastry chef had it coming when I used that fireball, they know what they did..."

Keith looked at Lance with puzzlement. "Long story, man, I'll explain another time. Just a word of warning-don't ever mess with Pidge's brother or Pidge will haunt you for the rest of your life..."

The tavern maid returned a few minute later with Lance's breakfast and a second helping for Hunk and they ate mostly in silence, tension running rife through their little group as anxiety ran rampant over the possibility of a spy or an assassin sent to kill them or stop their rescue mission. Of course, the silence was broken the moment Pidge coughed, nudged Hunk in the side, smirked evilly and gestured at the two of them, waggling their eyebrows. Hunk groaned, gave Lance a look that he interpreted as "Are you serious?" and pulled out yet more coins from his pockets and handed them to Pidge.

Lance winced. "I take it you two had another bet?"

Pidge nodded happily as they counted and clinked the coins in their hands. "Yep. Honestly, I don't know why Hunk keeps making bets with me, I always win."

Keith frowned as he nibbled at a basket of dried, sweet-smelling flowers that was set in the middle of the table. "What were they wagering about? I don't get it."

Lance grimaced and looked away. "About us, Keith. Need I say more?"

"Oh. Why would they make a wager about that?" Keith turned to their two other compatriots while running his tail up and down Lance's neck-in plain view of everyone, no less! Lance nearly fainted from the shame and the incredible sensations shooting up his spine. "Yes, I have claimed Lance as my mate for now, what's so odd about that? For as long as we so choose, I have marked him as mine, no one else can have him or touch him so long as I'm around and wish it so." A passing tavern maid frowned at Keith's words and Keith leaned across the table, his eyes now burning gold. "No one, understand? He is mine."

"Keith," Lance whispered nervously, wishing he could crawl into a hole and die, "you're being a little intense..."

Keith gave Lance a look that was almost one of outrage. "What? Is this not what you humans do after mating with one another? Announce your bonding, ensure no other comes near unless you invite them to your bed as yet another mate, challenge any potential thieves to combat should they not get the hint?" Several of the demon prince's fingernails turned to claws as he gripped the table tight in his grasp. At the back of the common room, the cloaked figure stirred slightly.

"No, Keith, we most certainly do not do that-at least, I don't." Lance dragged Keith back down to his seat, gripped the demon's hand tight, apologized to the tavern maid (who giggled at the sight of them holding hands), and thwacked his head against the table. "Can we leave now, please?"

"Sure you two don't need to announce the fact that you're mates to the rest of the town first?" Pidge said with a nasty chuckle.

"Please don't encourage them, Pidge," Hunk groaned as he got up, stretched and settled their bill with the innkeeper behind the polished wooden counter. Pidge followed suit, stashing their newfound treasure trove of Altean coinage in the pockets of their baggy robes.

"You know, Shiro really should've taught you more about human customs when he first summoned you," Lance sighed as Keith began to calm down, his tail curling up into a coil that sat in Lance's lap, the twitching stirring yet another boner beneath his breeches. Lance ignored the touch and the thoughts. "Admittedly, I'm not sure you two would have had the chance to discuss "mating rituals..."

Keith laughed quietly and titled his head back so he could look up at the ceiling. "Don't be so sure of that, Lance..."

"Ok, what did you two get up to? He's my master, I have a right to know..."

Keith leaned forward and began to whisper into his ear, his voice husky and hoarse, his breath hot on Lance's face. "Recall when I said that many mages are after demons for, ah, what we got up to last night? Well, while that wasn't Shiro's initial reasons for seeking me out in the Shadow Domains, the issue did come up eventually...you see, demonseed is a very powerful restorative used in all kinds of magic healing arts and quite rare, too, unless you can procure it directly from the source..."

"Demonseed?" Lance said, frowning. He thought it over for a second then nearly jumped out of his seat at what the word must actually mean and what exactly the procuring process would be, recalling just how much demonseed had been spilled all over his ass and face and body last night and this morning. "Gods above, so you two-?!"

"Yes, we did mate, some time ago," Keith said simply, speaking as if he were describing the breakfast they'd just had rather than having sex. "Of course, now that you are mine and I am yours, that will make collecting the demonseed a bit more difficult for Shiro if he needs to-it's potent powers are only activated for the demon's current mate and if he wants more from me, well, the two of you will find yourselves in a bit of a pickle..."

Lance gulped. Did Keith mean what he thought he meant?! Did this mean that if Shiro wanted more of that demonseed from Keith that the three of them would have to-? No, no, Lance couldn't entertain the thought of him and his master sharing another person together in bed, that was just ridiculous! But if Shiro did ever need more to heal someone and if Lance did wish to continue whatever it was he had with Keith....Oh gods, oh gods, what the hell? Lance had occasionally considered just how damn handsome his master was-hell, practically everyone in the Order had the hots for Shiro-but he'd never actually considered something like that would happen to him. Threesomes were one thing, he could handle that, Lance had once been in a very memorable one with a duchess's daughter and an earl's son and all of them had enjoyed themselves immensely. It was the mere fact that he and his master might have to be together that was sending shivers and spasms all up and down Lance's spine.

"You seem rather flustered," Keith said with a frown, placing a hand on Lance's shuddering shoulders. "Is everything all right, Lance? Is there another human thing going on that I'm not aware of? Do you need me to fight someone or is this a side effect of our coupling?"

"I...I'll explain later, Keith," Lance managed to stammer out at last. Hunk and Pidge returned and Lance let loose a sigh of relief. Time to head on out then, leaving safety-and potential spies-behind them for the last time. Next stop, the Crystal Blight, the Galra Garrison-and Shiro. Gods, Lance had no idea how he'd be able to face his master now, knowing what he knew, knowing that if they did rescue him, that their relationship as master and apprentice might have to change, that the demon they'd both bonded with had been able to turn the world so very much upside-down. And Lance had no idea how in heaven he'd be able to put it back.

Or if he even wanted to. However the rest of their mission went, however the future happened, Lance knew only that if they survived this, he didn't know if he'd be able to let Keith out of his life again, not after everything they'd experienced, not after Keith'd managed to fill so much of him, literally and metaphorically. Lance had meant to summon a demon for one mission and one mission only. And now...

Now, it seemed likely that Keith was here to stay, for good.

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, everyone, sorry if that was just a short breather chapter, I wound up having less time to write than I expected I would. Our heroes will make it to the Crystal Blight next chapter and Galra soon after...we're nearly there, folks. Thank you so much for reading/commenting/kudos and generally enjoying the story, you've all been such great readers, I'm grateful to all of you, especially for being patient while the story has slowed down a bit lately. Thanks again! :)
> 
> NOTE (as of 10/8/2016): Hi everyone, I'm not dead, just tired after a long week of work and personal woes. I am hoping to write the next couple chapters in the next few days so rest assured, you'll get more of this fic soon. Thanks for being patient with me, hate leaving readers waiting for this long. :)


	10. The Crystal Blight of Quiznak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, I am so sorry for keeping all you wonderful readers in the lurch for several days-some awful real life stuff and anxiety/depression over being able to complete this fic lead to me taking a break from it for a few days. Sorry if that interrupted anyone's enjoyment/made anyone worry the fic was abandoned, its not, just needed a bit of a breather. Anyway, at last, our heroes have made it to the most treacherous part of the journey-the Crystal Blight of Quiznak. After this, it's time to rescue Shiro. What manner of horrors will they encounter here? Also, will there be more smut this chapter? (A bit, yes.) Read on and find out...and thanks for any kind comments, kudos and for reading/enjoying the story :)

Lance's teeth chattered loudly as his big blue lion gracefully slid out of the wormhole and into the glacial gray sky of a wilderness encompassing the entirety of the horizon. Stonebarrow and Balmera were behind them, the Galra Empire so close he could taste it (not that he'd want to.) Ahead of them lay three days journey through an endless expanse of treacherous terrain that was renown in legend and story and yet few had dared to visit, it's name used as a curse in multiple civilized nations: the Crystal Blight of Quiznak.

"You remember all those times I asked "Are we there yet?" on our journey?" Lance called out to Hunk as his bulky old yellow lion flew past, its wide wings flapping and fwooshing dramatically as it coasted on the frigid winds. "I'm kinda wishing I never did any of that. This place looks like a frozen hell that I very badly want to run away from and I haven't even seen it for more than two minutes!"

"Maybe you should have bundled up more, man!" Hunk cried back, his voice slightly muffled by the fur-trimmed cloak smacking him in the face. "Pidge said it'd be cold here, you should've followed their example!"

Lance looked over at the green lion, it's fierce-eyed feline face serene beneath the flapping fur of its verdant mane, and found he could barely make out its rider, so lost beneath furs and blankets were they. The only indicator of a human being wrapped up inside those furs were the thick glasses Pidge always wore and a tiny reddening nose poking out. "Pidge looks comfortable and warm but that outfit looks impractical," Lance scoffed, pulling at his own cloak, which was a flashy peacock blue and quite comfortable enough for the Altean Court, which meant it provided barely enough heat for the Crystal Blight. Every inch of him shivered as he spoke, voice straining to be heard over the whistling, whirling wind. "I'll be fine enough, Hunk, don't you worry."

"Just because you have your pretty boy demon friend there to keep you warm at night doesn't mean you'll get through the rest of the day all right, Lance," Hunk sighed, his gauntlet-covered hands rustling about in the yellow lion's saddlebags. "Once we land, I'm going to get you decked out all good and proper. Any time I've headed on a journey or a mission with other knights, I always prepare extra provisions, including clothes, 'cause there's always someone foolish enough to brave the elements without really knowing what they're getting into. I've got enough cloaks and socks in here to make you toasty for the entire trip."

"Really, Hunk, I appreciate the gesture but I'll be fine, I can just use some fire magic and-"

"Lance." Hunk's eyebrows narrowed and the huge Hundred Islander knight gave him a look that brooked no nonsense. He hefted one of his swords in his hand and thwacked the flat side of it against the steel-and-leather clad palm of his hand. "I'm not letting you turn into an icicle on this trip. You're my friend and I'm making sure you get through this mission alive and well. End of story, end of discussion. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," Lance sighed, turning his gaze away. Years of having to try and get by on his own both in his aloof family's castle and as an under-appreciated apprentice mage had made it difficult for him to accept the help of others, even his own friends. Still, given how thin his breeches seemed against the freakishly cold air and the sinking feeling that his balls would shrivel and his face melt away from the icy onslaught, Lance thought it best not to argue further. Hunk was just doing his duty and looking out for him, after all.

Speaking of someone looking out for him...A moment later, the wormhole closed and the scarlet-furred comet that was the red lion bolted towards Lance and his blue, Keith riding upon its back in a way that made it look almost as if he were standing up and challenging the frostbitten wind to take him down. A faint red nimbus of fire magic cascaded across Keith's body (which was devoid of furs, Lance noted), his tail whipped back and forth as if it were ready to strike at anything that made a sudden movement, and the look on the lost prince of the demons' face was one of pure determination.

"I said once that this Blight of yours is a lot like my home," Keith said to Lance as his lion pulled as close as possible as they let the currents drive them towards the tortured ground beneath the endless bank of churning gray-black clouds. "While the comparison isn't perfect, I still feel the same sense of...hostility towards me from this land as I felt from the Shadow Domains. The very Blight itself hates my presence, our presence. We are life it finds repulsive, unwanted, wrong. If these lions did not need to rest from wormhole travel each and every day, I would demand we travel for as long as it took to get us away from here."

"Keith," Lance said solemnly, feeling concern creep up into his voice, "if you don't think you can handle this place, we can try pressing forward as much as possible, maybe cut down the trip in half, even-"

"Oh, I can handle the Blight, Lance," Keith said, his glinting onyx eyes falling upon Lance and suddenly brimming with emotion other than annoyance, jealousy or desire. "What I can't handle is the thought of this place taking away from me the one other person in the human realm that not only does not look upon me with disgust but also looks upon me as someone they want, someone they need."

Lance gulped. "Well, you know, Pidge and Hunk are fond of you as well-"

"As comrades, as a curiosity, yes," Keith said with a sigh, his thick black hair whipping about in his face as they darted through the cold kingdom of clouds. "They are by far better than many I've encountered here. But you, Lance, you and Shiro are the only ones who've ever made feel needed and wanted when I've been here. You have no idea what it's like to be a wanderer in a place like this, a place that's supposed to be your home, cast out by those who should have respected and loved you and yet turned against you in the end." Keith frowned, clearly remembering what little he'd gleaned of Lance's memories during their moment of mental contact vis-a-vis the mindbleeder. "Well, perhaps you know that to some small extent, it would explain why we work together so well."

"You think we work together well?" Lance said, with eyebrows raised, mind still mulling over the demon prince's fears and worries. They'd only known each other some small time and yet Keith already thought so strongly of him? As more than just a bedfellow? Lance didn't know what to think or say about that.

"Certainly, whether its on the battlefield or in the bedroom, we make a great team," Keith said with a smirk, rubbing at one of the iron ear piercings, which surely must have felt incredibly chilly in this wind. "In fact, I, I am thinking of staying here in the human world with you for a time, if Shiro doesn't mind. I am rather reticent to return to the Shadow Domains and would like to stay, if you'll have me..."

"I, I, I," Lance stammered. "Well, um, you did already claim me as your mate back there in the tavern so I suppose..."

"Oh yes, that." Keith snatched out at a passing snow-wasp the size of a small bird, snapped its neck in half and devoured it whole. "Sorry if I startled you, Lance, I just needed to make sure the others did not try to take you for their own without asking my permission first. If you needed to bring another mate into bed with us..."

"Uh, no, no, not for now, I'm good," Lance said, suddenly feeling a little warm for the first time since coming to Quiznak. Keith was very, very intense in bed, Lance wasn't sure he needed anyone else for right now. Of course, that thought lead to worries about what he, Keith and Shiro might have to get up to later, so he shoved said worries aside. "If you want to stay here in the human realms with me for a while, well, I'd be up for it. As soon as I'm freed of my apprenticeship we could go see the parts of the human dimension that aren't out to kill us, I could show you the world..."

"I'd much rather see more of you," Keith said with a lusty little laugh. "But yes, that would work as well. Now, I think we should catch up with the rest of the group as we land. I think, though I'm not quite certain, that Pidge is glaring at us from underneath all those furs."

"Oh, right, sorry." Lance pulled at the reins of his blue lion, shouted "Yip, yip!", and pushed the winged beast further and faster, down in a swift spiral of flight that breached the clouds and finally gave him a good view of the landscape surrounding them. Mountains of glistening green-grey rock capped with drifts of snow and riven through with striated layers of electric blue and pulsing purple ran off as far as the eye could see. Multi-faceted rods and pillars of crystal blazed like starfire beneath the ashen-white crust of ice, jagged cliffs of obsidian and weathered spires of shimmering quartz stabbed at the sky, and bursts of violent fire and crackling spears of crimson lightning flashed and roared from the pools of magic energy bubbling in glassy craters. Darting around the edges of the cursed wilderness were the grim forms of slimy silvery-blue trees that rose a hundred feet tall, their rotting, putrefied bodies ending not in branches but in undulating tentacles tipped with poisonous barbs.

"Stay clear of the Squidwood!" Keith yelled to the other three as they swooped on down to the ground in search of a safe spot for the evening. "And don't go near the mountains, either, there's probably a dozen different species of dragons living up there, snow-wasp hives, yeti nests in the deep frost-fall, untamed quintessence fields roaring out of the ruptured grounds. Finding a safe spot won't be easy but if we avoid either of those places, we might just manage."

"Is there anything here that won't kill us?" Pidge shouted back, voice muffled by fur and wool.

"The ice-phoenixes, maybe," Keith said, after a moment's thought. "Of course, this is the time of year that their eggs are likely to hatch, so I wouldn't go up and disturb their nests, if I were you."

"So that's a no, then," Pidge sighed. One tiny gloved hand reached out of the warm bundle they wore and pointed out towards a a rambling ridge of reddish-black stone that resembled a screaming face to Lance's worried imagination. "Would it be safe to land over there, you think? No killer squid-trees, no yetis or dragons or whatever..."

"Looks safe enough," Keith said with a shrug. "What do you think, Lance?"

"Anywhere's better than being stuck up here freezing my ass off," Lance replied curtly, really, really regretting his poor choice of wardrobe for this journey. If anything had shown his lack of readiness for a quest, it was the fact that he'd prepared for all these wild lands and their vicious weather as he would for a ball back at court. Well, live and learn, if he ever needed to go on a quest again-the gods pray that it did not occur, certainly not one like this-then he'd have the experience to know that if he left home, to make sure he brought enough proper clothing to last a lifetime.

"OK, then, Pidge, Enchanter Boy's fine with that choice of camping spot," Keith shouted. "Hunk, you want guard duty first or should one of us take it?"

"I'm fine with guard duty," Hunk said jovially, his broad brown face split wide with a winning grin. "I can catch up on my knitting that way, make sure you all have got some new scarves for the next couple of days."

"Just make sure you don't let us all die so you can tie off a few loose ends," Lance shouted playfully. Hunk grumbled, snatched a handful of snow from a passing mountain ridge, and threw several snowballs that splattered on Lance and his lion, which roared disapprovingly in response. Lance whooped, trembled slightly as his bare hands touched the cold metal of the medallion hanging around his neck, and summoned several Ice Beams to return the favor. The two of them laughed, hollered and hooted as they tossed snowball after snowball until Keith stood up on his lion's back, ears twitching and said in a steely whisper, "Stop, now."

The other three frowned and held silent for several minutes as they came ever closer to their proposed camping site for the night. Finally, Lance could hold it in no more and whispered, "Uh, Keith? Did your demon senses get all tingly and alert you to something or are those big old ears of yours just really sensitive to sound?"

"I...I thought I heard something moving nearby, sensed something with murderous intent towards us."

"That'd be me," Pidge mumbled. "One of these two buffoons got me in the glasses with their little snowball fight and I'm going to get them back. Don't know how, don't know when but I suspect pie-throwing may be involved."

"No, no, not that," Keith said impatiently, both his head and tail shaking. "I, I don't know what it is I sensed but I know something's out there, watching, waiting. Maybe we shouldn't stay here for the night after all-"

Keith's words were suddenly interrupted by an incessant and immediate beeping from one of Pidge's saddlebags. Rover floated out from its usual resting place, the metallic familiar's tiny pyramid body quivering slightly in the wind, and beeped loudly as it whirled on down to the edges of the rock face where they'd planned to stay the night. As soon as the lions landed and settled into a big sleepy, furry heap, the four of them rushed on over towards Rover, who bobbed up and down excitedly around what looked to be a small pile of lumpen, twisted metal parts. Pidge leaned down, frowned as they inspected the fragments and handed one over to Keith. Keith sniffed, licked and eventually ate the metal parts, looking thoughtful as he crunched them loudly.

"Hmm. Yep, that's a Galra War Droid, all right," Keith confirmed as he slowly licked his lips, "an older model judging by the rusty aftertaste but recent enough that this couldn't have been here too long. Too bad it didn't have any machine oil left over, would have made for a delightful sauce"

"Was that what you sensed?" Lance asked while ignoring his demon boyfriend's peculiar culinary quirks, placing a hand on Keith's shoulder, slightly worried over Keith's intense face, his stiffened posture, the way very single bit of his poise and posture suggested that they should be ready for a fight. "Or is it something else?"

"I, I don't know," Keith said with a sigh eventually, his shoulders sagging. "Maybe it was just this old robot and I felt the violence of its past actions-or, rather, whatever it was out there that destroyed it and quite a few others, by the looks of things..."

Silence returned and not a single one of them moved. Lance cleared his throat, closed his cloak tight around him and said, "Well, I don't see anywhere else for us to stop for the night that isn't covered in snow or near any of about 1,000 different creatures out to kill us-"

"More like 5,708 creatures, actually," Hunk muttered as he flipped through one of Pidge's thick, leather-bound books. "With recent expeditions here saying there might be even more unaccounted for-"

"Whatever," Lance sighed, throwing his hands up in the air. "Look, point is, flying all day has worn out the lions, worn out all of us, and we should take a break for at least a little while, ominous senses or not. Besides, I'm tired of my ass being sore from all that riding and I just walked into another joke set-up without realizing it, didn't I?"

"What you two get up to is none of our business," Pidge sighed, shaking their head. Hunk at least had the decency to blush with embarrassment on their behalf. Keith simply smiled at Lance and flickered his tail-its slightly furry tufts soft and warm-across his face, slowly moving the tail downwards. Lance grabbed at the tail, which caused Keith to shudder in a manner that was certainly not appropriate around other people, and dropped the tail immediately.

"OK, we're resting for the night, end of story," Lance said. He paused and remembered that technically Pidge was in charge of the quest. "Um, if that's all right with-"

"Yes, yes, fine," Pidge grumbled; clearly the bitter, biting cold was getting to them as well, in addition to all the worry and anxiety they surely felt over the fate of their brother. "Sorry, Keith, going to overrule your senses over this one. I'm sure we can do something more to protect us other than have Hunk threaten things with his knitting needles."

"They actually are pretty threatening," Hunk said with a nod, pulling two sharp needles and a ball of fuzzy pink yarn from his saddlebags. "At least, they are if you step on them while barefoot in the middle of the night."

Lance winced. "Well, those needles and our weapons likely won't be enough, no matter what. So I, brilliant mage that I am, have thought of something that should hopefully help us in most circumstances."

Pidge raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? And what is this brilliant plan of yours, if you don't mind me asking with a voice dripping heavily with skepticism?"

"Let your voice drip away skeptically all you want, Pidge," Lance said with a laugh, flashing a smile at Keith to assure the demon prince that he could handle things pretty well himself this time. "Watch and be amazed!"

Lance walked over to the field of snow and dimly glowing crystalline tendrils encircling the perimeter of their stony ridge and let his body grow calm and confident, more so than he'd felt in a while. They were so close to Shiro, so close to righting the world and though Lance had been the one to suggest the course of action they'd undertaken, he felt like he still hadn't contributed overly much to their success on the quest. Well, that was about to change.

His breath grew deeper and deeper as he felt and sensed at all the confluences of magic emanating from the Blight, pulsing bursts of energy that radiated across his mind, body and spirit. Water, Air and Earth magic in particular was strong here, with all the ice and wind and crystal, but fire was found deep beneath the shifting crust of interlocking crystals hidden deep beneath the snow. The Eighth Transition was coming soon, so Pidge said, when the crystal matrix beneath the ground would re-align and all hell would begin to break loose, culminating in the truly terrifying landscapes of the Ninth Transition, when leviathans, krakens, skullbeasts, ice-spiders and giant azure gem-crabs would all burst from beneath the ground and wreak havoc for weeks until the ground re-settled once more. Lance could care less about all the extraordinary weirdness of a metamorphic landscape-all he cared about was the bold, brazen build-up of energy underneath that he could use to his potential.

"All right, here goes." Lance grasped at his medallion, felt the energy of all those hidden elements rush through him, and released the magic once more, unleashing a massive wall of glistening translucent icicles fifty feet tall around the ridge, their spiky tips wreathed in tongues of dancing purple fire. He fell to the snowy ground beneath, panting heavily as he looked out on the thorny wall of tangled ice surrounding them, and grinned like an idiot when Keith came over, helped him up, and gave him a fierce and fiery kiss upon the lips.

"Good job, Lance," Keith practically purred as he lead Lance back to the pile of lions. "Hell, great job. That should probably keep out anything and everything around here except for maybe the dragons. And if we don't bother them, they shouldn't bother us."

"That should definitely give us a modicum of safety," Pidge sighed with relief as they inspected the ring of ice and fire. "Now we just have to make sure no one sticks their tongue to it and gets stuck in place."

They spent the next hour or so setting up camp, laughing, joking and eating around a small fire that Pidge set up with their own magic, Lance being still too tired after that mighty display of cryokinesis. While Keith wandered off to the tent they were sharing, Hunk dragged Lance over to his tent and made sure he was decked out in a much warmer, thicker coat and with a mantled cloak so heavy Lance felt like he was dragging metal weights around (of course, it could be worse, he could've been stuck wearing bits of armor all the time the way his big knight friend always did.) Lance thanked Hunk for the warm clothes as he went off for the first few hours of guard duty, stopped by Pidge's tent to tell them good night, then wandered into his own tent and nearly fell over at the sight of Keith writhing and laying about the bundle of blankets and furs on the floor, naked once more, his pale skin slick with sweat and still slightly tinged by the glow of the fiery nimbus he used to keep himself warm in the wintry wastes of the Crystal Blight.

"Seriously, Keith?" Lance said with a laugh, cursing as his loins betrayed him once more and he felt his cock stir beneath all the woolens he'd just put on. "Out here, in the middle of this frozen hellhole-"

"Why not, Lance?" Keith said with a sigh, his tone of voice surprisingly serious given that his nude and wanton body was sprawled everywhere across the tent's floor and both his hands were busy, one hand toying with an iron-pierced nipple, the other one lazily running up and down his hard, thick cock. "I, I grew quite worried when I felt that...presence earlier and I could use some comfort. And you could use some warmth, right, given how frail and fragile your human body is in this cold? And considering we may not make it out alive of this place or the Galra capitol-or at least, you might not, we demons are quite tough and resilient-and that this meant we might not get another chance to be together I, well, thought it might be a good idea if we both-"

"It's all right, Keith," Lance said with a smirk, amused that this time the teasing, taunting prince was the one who was desperate to have Lance come to him. It was surprisingly, stupidly cute. Lance didn't know what had brought this sudden protective, worried side of Keith out-he suspected that the similarities between the Blight and the Shadow Domains may have jogged some unpleasant memories for the poor prince-but he rather liked seeing it. "Here, give me a sec, just got these on, for the gods' sake..."

Lance hopped about a bit as he struggled to get out of the many layers of wool and fur that Hunk had loaned him and let out a little yelp as Keith grabbed his ankle and brought him down to the ground. The two young men laughed stupidly as they began to wrestle and rock their bodies against one another, Lance groaning as Keith's lips fell upon his suddenly bare chest, a low rumbling emerging from Keith's throat as Lance ran his hands across the demon prince's back and around to his chest, fingers pausing to feel the flat, firm muscled form before dancing and darting across the hardened nipples. Lance sighed happily as Keith's grasping, groping hands finally tugged down the thick woolen underbreeches and he grabbed both their cocks together, hard and wanting, brown skin against pale, and began to rub them together fast and frantic, the warmth enveloping and encroaching upon the sensitive flesh of Lance's groin. Lance breathed deeply as their bodies thrust and moved against one another and felt the figners of Keith's other hand reach down to grab his ass tight and probe at his entrance and a small, shrill cry began to erupt from his throat-

FWOOSH! A loud, crackling blast of energy sounded from outside, shaking the tent and killing the mood instantly. FWOOSH! FWOOSH! BOOOM! Lance yelped as Keith leapt off of him and ran out of the tent without a word, still naked, his heavy and still erect cock swinging back and forth between his legs. Lance cursed, pulled up the underbreeches and his trousers and ran out the tent as well, shivering slightly as his bare chest and shoulders met the cold wind of the Blight but otherwise more worried about whatever new enemy was attacking them now. Another bolt of energy seared across the sky and blew up a spray of crystal shards and snow only several feet away, the source of the energy still unknown.

"The fuck was that?" Lance cried as he searched the sky for the source of the energy blast. He rubbed at his medallion, linked with the magic power surrounding him, and yelled with fury as he faced down a flock of silvery winged serpents spewing bolts of fire everywhere as they swooped down from the sky and began to attack the wall of ice and fire he'd only just constructed a short while ago.

To his left, Pidge was busy summoning spears of blackstone and granite from beneath the ground, shooting down each and every one of the creatures that befell them. To his right, Hunk was proving quite capable as their guard, swords and bayard slick with the blood of serpents, stabbing and blasting so many of the strange creatures in a whirl of steel and fury that Lance couldn't keep track. Right in front of him, Lance saw Keith leap off of the ground enveloped in fire as he dodged and danced around a series of magic blasts that came not from the flock of flying serpents but from another source entirely-the cloaked and hooded man from back in the tavern in Stonebarrow, the spy who'd tried so hard to have them killed several times on this trip. Though Keith was quick enough and strong enough not to be taken down by the hooded stranger's salvos, Lance couldn't wouldn't let anything happen to the demon prince that he had summoned, that he had come to be so fond of that he felt far more than infatuation and lust for the brash and beautiful boy, though he had no idea how exactly he'd describe that feeling. Whatever the case, Lance was ready to fight the spy side by side with Keith.

Lance ran up to Keith, shaking his head at the demon's lack of deference to human customs concerning clothes, and let loose Ice Beam after Ice Beam towards the hooded stranger. A shield of translucent purple glass shimmered into existence around the mysterious figure and both Lance and Keith dove to the side as the Ice Beams bounced back and blasted the ground with a thick layer of glimmering frost. Keith snarled and launched scintillating swords of fire from the palms of his hands, using his tail to rip out a shard of obsidian from the twisted ground and toss it at the face of their foe. The shield deflected all of those as well, vanished for a moment to unleash a whirl of knives, and reformed as the demon and the enchanter moved away from the blur of steel. Sweat dampened Lance's brow and stung at his eyes despite the cold-what in the name of the gods could stop this guy? He moved fast as a demon and summoned magic as strong as Shiro's.

FWOOSH! Another crackling lance of lightning left the spy's fingers and struck the ground, this time causing a rumbling, quivering quake to shake beneath Lance's feet. He looked over at Pidge who stopped in the middle of their fight to give him a look of horror, the small mage's lips mouthing "Ninth Transition." If they kept generating more and more magic in the Blight at this point in its landscape-shifting cycle, they'd surely summon not only catastrophic earthquakes that would make escape difficult, they'd also awaken even more hordes of dangerous, deadly monsters. Lance was tired of monsters trying to kill him and really didn't want to get caught in an earthquake so he did the only thing he could think of that might prove able to take down the hooded sorcerer-he whistled.

A flash of silvery claws and multi-colored fur filled Lance's vision and he let out a triumphant laugh as the lions, previously asleep even through the entirety of that fight, suddenly made their way towards the hooded stranger and pounced upon him so fast that he even he couldn't react. A slice of Hunk's sword killed the last of the silvery flying serpents attacking them and after they all checked one another over to make sure no one was hurt (Hunk and Pidge's eyes both looked away from the resplendently naked warrior that was Keith, thankfully no longer sporting a throbbing erection, at least), they turned to face the man who had made so much of their journey a strange and surreal nightmare.

"Hell-wyrms, war droids, probably even the mindbleeders," Lance said with a scowl as he approached the man trampled beneath the lions, his swears and cursing cries muffled by so much fur; the lions merely licked their paws and yawned, not caring what their new playtoy was up to. "You were responsible for all of those somehow, weren't you? Well, we beat you fair and square, you bastard. Time for a dramatic reveal, I think." Lance reached out a trembling hand, gulped and removed the hood.

Pale skin, pointy ears, a prominent nose and chin, eyes that normally brimmed with good humor, compassion and intelligence. A bushy orange moustache that no one else would dare to sport. No, it couldn't be...

"Coran?!" they all shouted in unison, stunned that their fallen foe was the High Minister of Altea, the regent of Allura's court, the princess' biggest supporter in the pit of vipers that was the game of royal politics. A man who bore nobody any harm, a man who certainly had no training by the High Order of Mages, certainly not enough to have been capable of all of this. For several moments, they were all too stunned to speak, the only sound being the flickering of flames, the faint groaning of the crystal plates beneath the earth, and the skirling susurrus of the wind. At last, Hunk broke the silence.

"I don't know about you guys," Hunk said, "but if this really is Coran, he's off my gift-list for the Winter Festival." The knight shook his head and waved his hastily discard knitting about. "No warm and fuzzy scarves for you, mister."

The silence resumed as they continued to stare at one another, a pall of uncertainty falling upon them that was even scarier than the Crystal Blight had been so far. Just what was going on? What were they really up against?

Whatever the case, answers weren't likely to come until they finally got to Shiro. Two more days left, just two more days. And then, at last, for better or for worse, this would all be over.

Lance looked between Keith and Coran and realized that, though the quest might be over after this, they had gotten themselves involved in something else far more sinister that had only just begun...

*****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, everyone, hope that chapter was worth the wait, hope to have the next one up far, far sooner than this one took to get posted. Thanks for reading, enjoying, commentary, etc., and thanks so very much for waiting this long and being patient while I sort through a lot of crap. Next chapter: Prison Break! :)

**Author's Note:**

> OK, that was the end of Chapter 1! Hope everyone enjoyed it and wants to come back for more of Enchanter Lance, Demon Keith, Apprentice Pidge, Sir Hunk and Wizard Shiro! Thanks for reading and leaving kudos and comments! (Also, in case anyone's wondering, the chapter title is a reference to the Monty Python joke about Tim the Enchanter, only this time it's Lance. I know, I shouldn't explain the joke, but sadly, not everyone gets Monty Python references.) Anyway, thanks again to the Voltron fandom here on ao3! New chapter should be up in the next couple of days! :)


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